Professor Vincenzo Caporale, director of the Istituto G. Caporale since 1990, was born in Turin on 23 October 1946.

He graduated in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Perugia, and was awarded a Masters in Preventive Veterinary Medicine and a PhD in Comparative Pathology at the University of California Davis (USA).

Immediately after his graduation, in 1967, he began his work as Assistant at the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute for Abruzzo and Molise, first as a voluntary worker, subsequently in the post of head of various departments, then with the title of Assistant Director.

In his capacity as lecturer in the Faculty of Veterinary medicine at the University of Bologna he has held master classes at Italian and foreign universities; he has taken part as a speaker in numerous conferences in Italy and abroad, and has held appointments on behalf of ministries and regional authorities.

Since May 2009 Vincenzo Caporale has been President of the OIE Biological Standard Commission. As an international expert he has been engaged in consultancy, teaching and cooperation missions on behalf of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and international scientific organizations in numerous countries.

He is head of the OIE Collaboration Centre for Veterinary Training, Epidemiology, Food Safety and Animal Welfare. As a consultant to the European Commission and the Ministry of Health he takes part, in close collaboration with the Department for Veterinary Public Health, Nutrition and Food Safety, in coordinating and managing epidemic emergencies and crises connected with the health and safety of foods.

He is a member of numerous international medical and veterinary associations, and in 2005 was obtained the Award of the School of Veterinary Medicine of the University of California Davis (USA) for his outstanding contribution in veterinary epidemiology and over the international standards on animal diseases.

Recently Vincenzo Caporale was honoured with the Anita Garibaldi Merit Medal by the governor of the State of Santa Catarina (Brazil) for the "great contribution he has made to the development of the economy" of the Brazilian state.

He has published to date more than 200 scientific papers in Italian and foreign reviews.