Specializing in condensed-matter physics, he is the co-founder of MemComputing, Inc. Di Ventra obtained his undergraduate degree in physics summa cum laude from the University of Trieste (Italy) in 1991 and did his PhD studies at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland) in 1993–1997.

In 2004, he moved to the physics department of the University of California, San Diego, where he was promoted to full professor in 2006.

[6] Di Ventra has published more than 200 papers in refereed journals (he was named 2018 Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics) and has 7 granted patents (3 foreign).

[citation needed] He is the co-founder of MemComputing, Inc. Di Ventra has made several contributions to condensed-matter physics, especially quantum transport in atomic and nanoscale systems,[7] non-equilibrium statistical mechanics of many-body systems,[8] DNA sequencing by tunneling,[9] and memelements.

[10][independent source needed] He suggested the MemComputing paradigm of computation,[11][12][13] and with his group and collaborators he derived various analytical properties of memristive networks, including the Caravelli–Traversa–Di Ventra equation,[14] an exact equation for the evolution of the internal memory in a network of memristive devices.