Wilson Savino was graduated in Biological Sciences at the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (1974), got his M.Sc. degree at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (1979), and Ph.D. at the University of São Paulo (1982). His post-doc training was in Cellular Immunology at Necker Hospital, Paris (1983-1985). He is Full Researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, and was Director of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute (2013-2017).

He is past President of the Brazilian Society of Immunology (1993-1995), the Brazilian Society of Cell Biology (2010-2014) and the International Society of Neuroimmunomodulation (2011-2014) . He is Full member of he Brazilian Academy of Sciences, member of the International Scientific Board of the Montevidéo Institut Pasteur (Uruguay), and Editor-in-Chief of the journal NeuroImmunoModulation. Moreover, he is the coordinator of the National Institute of Science and Technology on Neuroimmunomodulation.

He received the title of "Chevalier dans l'Ordre de Palmes Académiques"(French government) e the Luis Federico Leloir Medal (Argentinean government).

He published more than 300 scientific papers, and formed more than 100 hundred M.Sc. or Ph.D. students.

He also created the M.Sc./Ph.D. program on Health Sciences at the Mozambican National Health Institute.