Stefano Mancuso

Stefano Mancuso, founder of plant neurobiology and passionate science communicator, was included by The New Yorker among those “destined to change our lives.” A scientist and communicator, Mancuso is one of the world’s leading authorities studying and sharing a new truth about plants: intelligent and sensitive beings capable of choosing, learning, and remembering. He is a full professor at the University of Florence and a member of the Accademia dei Georgofili, and he directs the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology, with offices in Florence, Kitakyushu, Bonn, and Paris. He was the first Italian scientist to be invited, in 2010, as a speaker at TED Global in Oxford—his talk has since been viewed over 1.4 million times on the TED website alone.

In 2014, he founded PNAT, a spin-off of the University of Florence dedicated to developing plant-inspired technology. In 2016, he received the Austrian Ministry of Science and Technology’s Wissenschaftsbuch des Jahres award for best science book of the year.

His writing career began in 2013 with the multi-award-winning bestseller Brilliant Green (Giunti). In 2018, his book Plant Revolution won the Galileo Prize, Italy’s most prestigious award for science writing. His later works include The Incredible Journey of Plants (2018), The Nation of Plants (2019), winner of the Capalbio Prize and the Earth Prize, The Plant of the World (2021), winner of the Pozzale Luigi Russo Prize, and Phytopolis, The Living City (2023). In 2022, he published his first work of fiction, The Tribe of Trees (Einaudi). His books have been translated into 27 languages. He has also authored several podcasts, including Di Sana Pianta (2023), produced for Chora Media in collaboration with the literary agency Elastica.

In 2022, he was awarded the Fiorino d’Oro, the highest honor from the City of Florence, and was appointed Scientific Director of the newly established Foundation for the Future of Cities.