Valentina Raimondi, physicist, received a Ph.D. degree from the Electronics Engineering Dept. of the University of Florence (Italy). She is a senior researcher with the Applied Physics Institute of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-IFAC), where she leads the METEORS lab: “Methods and Techniques for Optical Remote Sensing”. Her main research interests are in aerospace technologies, instruments and methods for active (LIDAR), and passive optical remote sensing and its applications in Earth observation and environmental monitoring.