Alvaro Cassinelli earned both a French and Uruguayan B.Sc. in 1990. He obtained a Graduate Engineering diploma from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécom (now Télécom ParisTech) in 1996 and his Ph.D degree from the University of Paris-XI Orsay in 2000. Alvaro has been awarded important international prizes, including the Panasonic Prize [2005], Honorary Mention at Ars Electronica [2006], the Grand Prize [Art Division] at the 9th Japan Media Art Festival [2006], the Excellence Prize [Entertainment Division] at the 13th Japan Media Art Festival [2009], and the Digital Content EXPO Prize at SIGGRAPH Emerging Technologies [2016] among others.