Cingolani spent his childhood in Bari where he graduated from the University of Bari in 1985 with a degree in physics. He obtained his doctorate there in November 1988, and his PhD at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa in 1990.^[1]

From 1988 to 1991, Cingolani was a staff member of the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart, Germany, under the direction of Nobel laureate Klaus von Klitzing. He planned to move permanently to Japan to work at the University of Tokyo, but returned to Italy due to the death of his father.^[1]

From 1991 to 1999, Cingolani was first researcher and then associate professor of general physics at the Materials Science Department of the University of Salento (then called the University of Lecce). Between 1997 and 2000, he was a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo, then at Virginia Commonwealth University in the United States.^[1] From 2000 to 2005 he returned to the University of Salento, where he was professor of general physics at the Faculty of Engineering. There, he founded and directed the National Laboratory of Nanotechnologies in Lecce.^[3]

In 2001, Cingolani worked as an expert for the Public Prosecutor's Office of Rome giving expert opinions on the Marta Russo and Unabomber cases.

From 2005 to 2019, Cingolani was scientific director of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Genoa.^[1] In December 2015, he was awarded the Rome Science Prize. In 2016 he worked on the birth of the Human Technopole in Milan, the project for a research institute for biology.^[3]

On 12 April 2023, the Italian government nominated Cingolani as the next CEO of Leonardo S.p.A., a partially state-owned Italian multinational company specialising in aerospace, defence and security. Cingolani initially joined Leonardo in 2019, becoming chief technology and innovation officer and spearheading cyber and AI programs, leaving in 2021. Stefano Pontecorvo is the new Leonardo chairman.^[5]

From 2019 until 2021, Cingolani was Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at Leonardo S.p.A.; before this, he was scientific director at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Genoa from 2005 to 2019. In April 2019 he joined the board of directors of Illycaffè. In April 2020 he was appointed non-executive director on Ferrari's board of directors. He resigned from the board of directors of Ferrari on 16 February 2021.

On 13 February 2021, Cingolani was appointed minister for ecological transition in the Draghi cabinet.^[3] The newly created role took over energy matters previously shared with other ministries and combined them with the environment portfolio.^[6] He has criticized environmental activists for being too ideological in their approach and called for a slower, sustainable transition.^[7] Italian climate activists have expressed concern over Cingolani's calls for a slower transition and his statements supporting increased use of natural gas.^[8][9]

Together with Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, Cingolani appointed senior diplomat Alessandro Modiano as Italy's first-ever special envoy for climate change in January 2022.^[10]

Since leaving government office, Cingolani has been informally advising Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on energy policy.^[11]

• De Nora, Member of the Board of Directors (since 2023)^[11]

•   Media related to Roberto Cingolani at Wikimedia Commons