Roberto Piazza has been Full Professor in Condensed Matter Physics at the Politecnico di Milano since 2005 and has also been invited professor at the École Normale Supérieure in Lyon (2011), Leverhulme professor in Cambridge (2013), and Debye professor at Utrecht University (2015). He obtained a Master's degree in Physics from the University of Milan and a PhD in Quantum Electronics from the University of Pavia, with V. Degiorgio as advisor. After having worked with W. Goldburg at the University of Pittsburgh, he became first a lecturer in Pavia and then Reader at the Politecnico di Milano. He is currently section editor of the Journal of Physics Condensed Matter for liquids, soft matter, and biological physics, and a member of the European Space Sciences Committee of the European Science Foundation (ESF). His research activity, mostly devoted to the experimental study of soft matter and complex fluids, has covered topics ranging from colloidal suspensions to surfactant and protein solutions. The results of these studies have been the subject of about 100 papers published in international peer-reviewed journals.

He is also author of the popular book Soft Matter , published by Springer in Italian, English, and Chinese.