Born in Rimini March 27 1939, Maurizio Cumo graduated from Milan Polytechnic School of Engineering in Nuclear Engineering, at age 22. He then joined the Reactor Technologies Laboratory of the Casaccia Nuclear Research Centre. In 1967 he became a lecturer in Nuclear Power Technology, in 1969 was appointed director of the Reactor Technologies Laboratory and in 1970 began teaching Nuclear Power Technology at the Engineering Faculty of the University of Rome. Subsequently he became director of the Reactor Technologies Laboratory.
In 1976 he was appointed professor at the Engineering Faculty. In 1981 he was appointed to the board of ENEA (now Italian State Agency for Energy, Environment and New Technologies) and in 1997 became chair of the Technical Commission for Nuclear Safety and Protection. From 1983 to 1986 he led the Nuclear Power Plant Institute at the Engineering Faculty in Rome, and went on to direct the Specialization School in Nuclear Safety and Radioprotection (later Industrial Safety and Protection, later still Safety and Protection). In 2002 he became chair of the Council of Energy Engineering (renewed to 2008) at the Engineering Faculty of La Sapienza University in Rome. He has been senior examiner for the doctorate in Energy Research at the University since 1997.

Other roles include member of the scientific committee of the Energy Program of the Italian National Research Council; chair of the National Association of Nuclear Engineers; and, from 1983, chair of the Nuclear Energy Commission of the National Organization for Standards (in 1990 vice-president). In 1989 he was elected to the board of the International Solar Energy Society (ISES); and in 1991 to the committee of the International Centre for Heat and Mass Transfer (Chairman in 2002). Since 1984 he has been a member of the High Risks Commission of the Italian Prime Minister’s Office, concerned principally with industrial, nuclear and chemical risks.

In 1992 Professor Cumo was elected to the Italian Academy of Sciences (Academy of the Forty) and the European Academy for Sciences and Arts; in 2005 he became senator of the Academy, representing Italy. In 2002 he was elected president of the Italian Society for the Advancement of Sciences.

Additional academic roles are member of: New York Academy of Sciences, Professors World Peace Academy; Assembly for International Heat and Mass Transfer Conferences, and Assembly of World Conferences on Experimental Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics.

In 2000 he was appointed president of Italian Nuclear Power Plant Management Company (renewed in 2007) which, with a workforce of 630 and a budget of 2.5 billion US$, has the task of decommissioning the four Italian nuclear power stations. In 2002 he was nominated chair of the International Scientific Council of the Nuclear Energy Directorate, with mandate extended to 2010. In 2003 he was chair of Atomic Questions Group of the European Union and in 2004 became member of the EURATOM Technical and Scientific Committee. In 2006 he was appointed by the Italian Power Company ENEL as chair of the Safety Board concerned with the feasibility study for Units 3 and 4 at the Mochovce Nuclear Power Plant in Slovakia.

Awards and prizes accorded to Professor Cumo include the 1994 Italgas International Prize for energy, the Luikov Medal for achievement in research of fluid mechanics and thermodynamics, the Order Of Merit of the Italian Republic (1999) and Knight, Great Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy (2006).