After attending the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, Villani was admitted to the École normale supérieure in Paris and studied there from 1992 to 1996. He was later appointed assistant professor in the same school. He received his doctorate at Paris-Dauphine University in 1998, under the supervision of Pierre-Louis Lions, and became professor at the École normale supérieure de Lyon in 2000. He is now professor at Lyon University. He has been the director of Institut Henri Poincaré in Paris since 2009.

Prizes:
2001: Louis Armand Prize of the Academy of Sciences
2003: Peccot-Vimont Prize and Cours Peccot of the Collège de France
2007: Jacques Herbrand Prize (French Academy of Sciences)
2008: Prize of the European Mathematical Society
2009: Henri Poincaré Prize
2009: Fermat Prize
2010: Fields Medal
2014: Joseph L. Doob Prize of the American Mathematical Society for his book [Optimal Transport: Old and New (Springer 2009)]

Extra-academic distinctions:
2009: Knight of the National Order of Merit (France)
2011: Knight of the Legion of Honor (France)
2013: Member of the French Academy of Sciences