# Stefano Zacchiroli

> Italian computer scientist (1979-)

**Wikidata**: [Q2268618](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2268618)  
**Wikipedia**: [English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefano_Zacchiroli)  
**Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/stefano-zacchiroli

## Summary  
Stefano Zacchiroli is an Italian‑French computer scientist, programmer and university professor. He is best known for leading the Debian project from 2010 to 2013 and for his ongoing work on open‑source software preservation and tooling.

## Biography  
- **Born:** 16 March 1979, Bologna, Italy  
- **Nationality:** Italy; also holds French citizenship  
- **Education:** University of Bologna (doctoral studies under Andrea Asperti)  
- **Known for:** Leadership of the Debian project and development of open‑source tooling such as *ledger2beancount*  
- **Employer(s):** Télécom Paris; Polytechnic Institute of Paris (full professor, since 1 Sept 2021); affiliation with Software Heritage  
- **Field(s):** Computer science, software engineering, open‑source software preservation  

## Contributions  
Stefano Zacchiroli joined the Debian community as a developer on 17 Mar 2001 and was elected Debian project leader in April 2010, a role he held until April 2013. Under his stewardship Debian released several major stable versions, expanded its contributor base, and strengthened its governance structures. He co‑authored the *ledger2beancount* converter, a text‑based tool that translates Ledger accounting files to Beancount format, facilitating migration for finance‑oriented open‑source users. As a professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Paris, Zacchiroli teaches software engineering and leads research on software heritage, contributing to the preservation of source‑code artifacts worldwide. His work with the Software Heritage initiative helps archive billions of software artifacts, ensuring long‑term accessibility for researchers and developers. He has published numerous papers on software provenance and open‑source ecosystems, and his contributions are indexed in scholarly databases (e.g., DBLP, Google Scholar).  

## FAQs  
### Q: What role did Stefano Zacchiroli play in the Debian project?  
A: He served as Debian project leader from April 2010 to April 2013, guiding the distribution through multiple releases and governance reforms.  

### Q: Which awards has Stefano Zacchiroli received?  
A: He received the O’Reilly Open Source Award in 2015 and a Shuttleworth Foundation Flash Grant in November 2014.  

### Q: What is Stefano Zacchiroli’s current academic position?  
A: Since September 2021 he has been a full professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Paris, teaching and researching software engineering and preservation.  

### Q: What open‑source tool did he develop for accounting data?  
A: He created *ledger2beancount*, a converter that transforms Ledger files into Beancount format.  

### Q: Does he have affiliations beyond academia?  
A: Yes, he is affiliated with Software Heritage, an initiative that archives and preserves software source code.  

## Why They Matter  
Stefano Zacchiroli’s leadership of Debian helped solidify one of the world’s most influential Linux distributions, ensuring its stability, security, and community governance during a critical growth period. His advocacy for software preservation through Software Heritage addresses the systemic risk of losing digital knowledge, providing a foundation for future research and reproducibility. By bridging academic research and practical open‑source development, he has mentored a generation of engineers and contributed tools that streamline workflows (e.g., *ledger2beancount*). Without his contributions, Debian’s evolution might have been slower, and the systematic archiving of software artifacts would lack a key champion, potentially hindering long‑term access to the open‑source ecosystem’s collective codebase.  

## Notable For  
- Served as Debian project leader (2010‑2013).  
- Awarded the O’Reilly Open Source Award (2015).  
- Received a Shuttleworth Foundation Flash Grant (Nov 2014).  
- Developed the *ledger2beancount* conversion tool.  
- Holds a full professorship at the Polytechnic Institute of Paris and leads research with Software Heritage.  

## Body  

### Early Life and Education  
- Born in Bologna, Italy, on 16 March 1979.  
- Studied at the University of Bologna, completing doctoral work under Andrea Asperti.  

### Debian Involvement  
- Joined Debian as a developer on 17 Mar 2001.  
- Elected Debian project leader in April 2010; tenure ended April 2013.  
- Oversaw multiple stable releases, expanded the contributor community, and refined project governance.  

### Academic Career  
- Held a teaching position at Télécom Paris.  
- Appointed full professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Paris on 1 Sept 2021.  
- Teaches software engineering and supervises research on software heritage and preservation.  

### Open‑Source Projects and Tools  
- Created *ledger2beancount*, a text‑based converter facilitating migration from Ledger to Beancount accounting formats.  
- Active contributor to Software Heritage, helping archive billions of software artifacts.  

### Awards and Recognition  
- O’Reilly Open Source Award (2015) for contributions to the open‑source community.  
- Shuttleworth Foundation Flash Grant (Nov 2014) supporting his work on software preservation.  

### Professional Presence  
- Twitter: @zacchiro (active since 22 Jan 2010).  
- GitHub: zacchiro.  
- Mastodon: zacchiro@mastodon.xyz (since 26 Jun 2017).  

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## References

1. Catalog of the German National Library
2. [Source](https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/project-history/leaders.en.html)
3. [Source](https://nm.debian.org/person/zack/)
4. Mathematics Genealogy Project
5. [Source](https://www.bilug.it/argo/news-1/news/intervista-stefano-zacchiroli-165/)
6. [Source](https://upsilon.cc/~zack/)
7. [ORCID Public Data File 2023](https://pub.orcid.org/v3.0/0000-0002-4576-136X/employment/15904338)
8. [Source](https://shuttleworthfoundation.org/fellows/flash-grants/)
9. Freebase Data Dumps. 2013
10. [Source](https://publons.com/researcher/705657/)
11. [ORCID Public Data File 2020](https://pub.orcid.org/v3.0_rc1/0000-0002-4576-136X/external-identifiers/1442625)
12. [Source](https://twitter.com/zacchiro)