Prof. Valerio Orlando is a professor of bioscience and has been head of the Environmental Epigenetics Research Program at King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST) since 2013. 

He is also chairman of the annual Winter Enrichment Program (WEP) for 2019 at KAUST. It is a two-week program that aims to enrich and inspire current KAUST students and community as well as members of the public and broaden their horizons. It provides a platform for them to reach out to a wider region, as well as the rest of the Kingdom.

Orlando is from Italy. He graduated in biology in 1989 from La Sapienza University of Rome. He then moved to the Center of Molecular Biology at the University of Heidelberg (ZMBH) in Germany where he carried out his pioneering work in the field of molecular epigenetics.

He received a postdoctoral degree in microbiology at Biology Department of University Tor Vergata Rome, Italy, and another postdoctoral degree in molecular biology at Zentrum fuer Molekulare Biologie (ZMBH). 

In 1998, he began his career as a group leader of the chromatin and epigenetics lab at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan.

Between 2001 and 2008, he worked as an associate telethon scientist at the Epigenetics and Genome Reprogramming Lab of the Dulbecco Telethon Institute.

In 2013, he joined KAUST to lead the formation of a new research center on epigenetics. 

Orlando is an elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). He was president of the Italian Society of Biophysics and Molecular Biology (SIBBM) between 2007 and 2013. In 2007, he received the award of the Republic “Cavaliere della Repubblica” by the then-Italian president.

The 10th WEP was launched this week by KAUST President Dr. Tony Chan.

This year theme of the program is “Time.” It will include lectures by keynote speakers, as well as special courses, seminars, and field trips.

Orlando, chairman of the WEP 2019, said: “Time is the most universal and unifying theme that one can think of. Time is the dimension that everybody can understand and experience.”

“This university is open to everyone who has talent. As long as they have talent, they will be supported and educated,” he added.