Giovanni Mengali received his Doctor Engineer degree in Aeronautical Engineering in 1989 from the University of Pisa. Since 1990, he has been with the Department of Aerospace Engineering (now the Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering) of the University of Pisa, first as a Ph.D. student, then as an Assistant and an Associate Professor. Currently, he is Professor of Space Flight Mechanics. His main research areas include spacecraft mission analysis, trajectory optimization, solar sails, electric sails, and aircraft flight dynamics and control.