Dr. Francesco Battista holds a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from University of Pisa. He currently works in CIRA (Italian Aerospace Research Center), being affiliated with the Propulsion Division responsible for the Space Propulsion Laboratory. He has worked as a system engineer and project manager in different national and international projects, mainly in the topics of methane-based propulsion systems, hybrid propulsion, and electric propulsion. He is involved in the CIRA electric propulsion projects as the project manager and is technically responsible. He is the author or co-author of more than 100 papers published in international journals and conference proceedings.