Pierluigi (Enrico) Bonello received a M.S. (“Laurea”) in Forest Sciences (1987), University of Padua, Italy; D.Phil. in Forest Pathology (1991), University of Oxford, U.K.  Bonello was a post-doc at the Institute for Biochemical Plant Pathology, GSF - Forschungszentrum für Umwelt und Gesundheit in Munich, Germany (1991-1992); the department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California, Berkeley (1994-1996); and the department of Plant Pathology at the University of California, Davis (1997-2000). 

In 2000 he was appointed assistant professor at Ohio State University, with responsibilities for tree diseases.  He was promoted to associate professor in 2005 and professor in 2010.  He is also a member of the Environmental Science Graduate Program, the Center for Microbe Interface Biology, the Center for Applied Plant Sciences, and the Translational Plant Sciences graduate program at Ohio State University; an adjunct professor in the department of Biological Sciences at Wright State University; and a faculty member of the doctoral program, department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Florence, Italy. Most of his current work focuses on understanding molecular and chemical mechanisms of tree resistance to both indigenous and alien invasive pathogens and insects, including the model systems represented by (1) Austrian pine (Pinus nigra) and the shoot blight and canker pathogen, Diplodia pinea; (2) coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) and the causal agent of sudden oak death, Phytophthora ramorum; and ash (Fraxinus spp.) and the emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis).