Lorenzo Cantoni graduated in Philosophy and holds a PhD in Education and Linguistics.
He is full professor at the Università della Svizzera italiana (University of Lugano, Switzerland), Faculty of Communication Sciences, where was Dean of the Faculty in the academic years 2010-2014.

He is Director of the Institute for Communication Technologies and scientific director of three laboratories: eLab: eLearning Lab, NewMinE: New Media in Education Lab and webatelier.net.
His research and teaching activity focuses on computer mediated communication, centering on three main contexts: tourism (eTourism), education (eLearning) and socio-economic development (ICT4D: Information and Communication Technologies for Development).

Lorenzo Cantoni is chair-holder of the UNESCO chair in ICT to develop and promote sustainable tourism in World Heritage Sites at Università della Svizzera Italiana.
Since 2014 he is President of IFITT – International Federation for IT in Travel and Tourism.