Born in Ancona in 1972, Ercolani graduated in Physics at the University of Trieste before completing a PhD in Physics at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. Married with a daughter, he has been living in the Pisa region since 2007. His research was initially focused on the properties of two-dimensional electron gas in semi-conductors and later on structures with lower dimensions. Since 2007 he has been at the Scuola Normale Superiore as a graduate technician working on cleanroom management, the development of nanomanufacturing techniques (photolithography, deposition of thin films, etc.) and the synthesis of semiconductor nanowires with a technique called Chemical Beam Epitaxy. He is the author of about 50 publications, chiefly about his research into semiconductor nanowires.