Roberto Orosei was born in Reggio Emilia, Italy. He studied at the University of Bologna and received a Ph.D. degree from the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. After spending two years as a Research Fellow at the European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, he moved to the Institute for Space Astrophysics in Rome, where he participated in the design and realisation of instruments for solar system exploration missions.

He is a science team member of space experiments for the Rosetta, Mars Express and Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer missions of the European Space Agency, and for NASA’s Cassini, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Dawn and Juno probes. He is the principal investigator of the MARSIS radar on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, which provided evidence of the presence of liquid water beneath the south polar cap of Mars. He is a member of the Italian Astronomical Society and of the International Astronomical Union. Main belt asteroid 1993 RJ3 has been named 19224 Orosei in 2007.

Orosei currently works at the Institute for Radioastronomy in Bologna, a research structure of the Italian National Istitute for Astrophysics (INAF), and teaches a course of astrobiology at the University of Bologna.