Graduating from the University of Pavia in 1811, under the guidance of Vincenzo Brunacci (1768-1818), he joined the group at the Observatory of Brera, directed by Barnaba Oriani (1752-1832). Of liberal sympathies (he also collaborated on the newspaer the Conciliatore), and involved in the turbulent events of 1820-21, he chose the path of exile, settling first in Switzerland, then in London from 1823 to 1827. He then moved to Buenos Aires, in Argentina, where he was intensely active as astronomer, topographer, mathematician and physicist. In 1835 he had the chance of being appointed director of the Bologna Observatory, but his appointment was opposed by the Austrians. Thanks to Giovanni Plana (1781-1864) he then found hospitality at Turin, where he printed a work that was to win him international renown, Sur les forces qui régissent la constitution intérieure del corps [On the forces that govern the interior constitution of the body] (1836), praised by Faraday. He was then appointed to a post at the Jonia University of Corfu. In 1841 he was called to Pisa to occupy the Chair of Mathematical Physics, to which was later added the teaching of Celestial Mechanics and Geodesy. In 1848 he was at Curtatone and Montanara with the Pisa University Battalion. Nominated Senator of the Kingdom in 1861, he died in Pisa two years later. In addition to the previously mentioned pamphlet, Mossotti also left important contributions in the fields of celestial mechanics, molecular physics and optics.