Marino Gatto is Professor of Ecology, School of Civil, Environmental and Land Use Engineering, Politecnico di Milano. His cultural background is engineering and mathematical modeling. His research has entirely focussed on ecology and the management of renewable resources since 1974. His current research interests include: dynamics and management of marine resources, models of fragmented populations, extinction risk assessment of wildlife populations, climate change ecology, disease and parasite ecology, ecological economics. His recent research focus is on waterborne diseases, in particular cholera in developing countries. Marino Gatto has been the president of the Italian Society of Ecology from 2003 to 2006. He is a member of the Istituto Lombardo, Accademia di Scienze e Lettere, and the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti.