Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini has been a founding member of ISSNAF and has been for 11 years its vice-president. He is (since August 1999) Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of Arizona, member of the Cognitive Science Program, of the Department of Psychology, of the Department of Linguistics, and honorary member of the Department of Management and Organizations. In the Fall of 2020 he will again be visiting the Linguistics Department of Harvard University. In the Fall of 2013 he was a visiting scholar at the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy of MIT.
He has been the founder and director of the Department of Cognitive Science (DIPSCO), of the Scientific Institute San Raffaele, in Milan (Italy), and then professor of Cognitive Psychology at the San Raffaele University. Previously he was Principal Research Scientist at the Center for Cognitive Science of MIT, visiting professor at: MIT, Rutgers University, Harvard University, University of Maryland, the Collège de France (Paris, France), and at the University of Bologna. He obtained his doctorate in physics at the University of Rome (Italy) in 1969. His principal domains of research and teaching are Cognitive Science, Judgment and Decision Making, Biological Foundations of Language, Language Evolution, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Science. He has been the recipient of the prize “Premio Il Rosone d’Oro”, for the diffusion of science to the general public, of Premio Tevere for the best book of non-fiction, Rome (Italy) and of the Medal of the Chambers of Representatives (Medaglia della Camera dei Deputati) for the diffusion of science.  He has also been for many years, and still is, a regular science correspondent, presently for the daily paper Il Foglio, previously for “La Stampa”, “Il Corriere della Sera” and “La Repubblica”.