Carlo Rivolta obtained his PhD in Molecular Genetics at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and completed his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Prof. Thaddeus Dryja at Harvard Medical School, USA.

He worked there for an additional year as an HMS Instructor, and then moved back to the University of Lausanne, at the Department of Medical Genetics.

He is now a full Professor for Ophthalmic Genetics at the Medical Faculty of the University of Basel, as well as Professor and Chair of Medical Genetics, Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, at the University of Leicester, UK.