Salvatore Sciortino is born in Palermo in 1955. Laurea cum laude in Physics at the University of Palermo in 1978.

In 1979 he starts his research activity on Stellar Coronal Physics with the late Prof. G. S. Vaiana, at that time responsible at CfA (Center for Astrophysics, Ma, USA) of the program of stellar observations with Einstein, the first imaging X-ray observatory, conceived and realized by the group leaded by R. Giacconi. As part of this collaboration he spend over more than a decade long research periods at CfA. Since 2001 he is Astronomo Ordinario (Chair equivalent position) at Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo (OAPA).

He has been Co-I for the realization of the XMM-Newton EPIC (European Photon Imaging Camera, (http://xmm.vilspa.esa.es) and member of the OAPA team for the realization of the HRC (High Resolution Camera) of Chandra (http://cxc.harvard.edu). He has leaded, in close collaboration with Dr. F.R. Harnden, Jr., the HRC GTO program of stellar observations. He has been and is PI of national level research programs, of tens of GO programs with ROSAT, ASCA, SAX, Chandra, XMM-Newton as well as of ground based observational programs.

In 2002-2004 he leaded with M. Tavani and G. Puglierin the writing of the Italian program for the High Energy Astrophysics and has collaborated to the writing of the program for the years 2004-2006. He has been part of the top level board implementing the program thanks to the resulting ASI contract.

From 1.1.2002 to 27.12.2011 he has been Director of Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo and from June to November 2012 Director of INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania. From 4/2006 and up 4/2011 he has been the INAF designed member in the board of directors of the Sicilian COMETA consortium for ICT research and innovation. He has been member of the XEUS Definition Team, of the IXO Science Definition Team and member of the ATHENA (Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics) Study Team as well as member of the Italian group for the study of those space missions.

He has been appointed in several INAF committees to study and write reports on various aspects of INAF organization and key problems. He has been  the Head of the Coordination Unit of the INAF Science Direction from 2012 to 2016. He is author of more than 440 scientific publications (> 8000 citations), more than 180 in international professional journals. His H-index (as measured by Google Scholar in 2019) is 51. His current main scientific interests concentrate on the high energy emission from young and pre-main sequence stars, and on studies of next generation X-ray missions.

Since 2016 is responsible of two central offices of the Presidency of the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) devote to the Policy towards Universities and Other Research Institues and to the Policy for the valorization of Cultural Heritage. He is also one of the 3 INAF members of the permanent paritetic ASI-INAF committee.