Advisory Board

Mr. Francesco Affaitati, M.Sc., is a Flight Dynamics Manager at the European Space Agency Missions at the European Space Operation Center (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany. Currently, he serves as a Flight Dynamics Manager for the EU Copernicus Sentinel Programme. His main duties include support to the Copernicus constellation in operations as well as future Copernicus Expansion Missions like ROSE-L and CIMR Missions.

He joined the European Space Agency in 2000 as a Data System Engineer, then a Flight Dynamics Engineer supporting more than 20 Missions including Integral, Rosetta, Mars Express, GOCE, Swarm and the Copernicus Sentinels.

Mr Affaitati is an active participant at international conferences and debates, promoting the use of satellite data in Science and Civil Applications for Earth Monitoring and Environmental control. He also delivered lectures at the University of Padua for Earth Observation Applications in Land and Forestry for PhD programmes.

He holds a M.Sc. degree with honours in Electronics Engineering from the University of Padua, Italy. His professional interests include Flight Dynamics, Space Operations, Ground Segment Architectures, Computer Science, Robotics, Automation and AI.

Before joining the European Space Agency, Mr. Affaitati was a researcher in a high-tech company in Venice, developing Autonomous Robotics and Vehicles for Space, Land and Sub-Sea.

He is a member of various engineering associations, including the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), where he is board member of the Space Operations and Support Technical Committee and reviewer for various conferences.

Pieter Beck is an ecologist who specializes in the remote sensing and modelling of vegetation. He studies the effects that climate and disturbances have on the growth, composition, and distribution of forests. His work relies heavily on Earth Observation, from satellites as well as aircraft, from the level of individual plants to the entire globe. Pieter holds a doctoral degree from the University of Tromsø, Norway, and worked at the Woods Hole Research Center, now the Woodwell Climate Center, in Massachusetts prior to joining the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in 2013.

Before pursuing a career in science, Dr. Hartmann lived for almost 20 years in Eastern Canada where he first worked as a forest technician, then studied forest sciences and finally did a PhD in forest ecology. After his return to Germany, he became group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry and, since December 2022, head of the Julius Kühn-Institute for Forest Protection, and professor for forest protection at the Georg-August University in Göttingen. His research approach is highly transdisciplinary and innovative and his vision is to build a digital twin of the entire German forest as a tool for shaping climate-change-resilient forests for future generations.

Nicolas Meurisse is a Senior Forest Entomologist and Team Leader for Forest Ecology and Management at the New Zealand Institute for Bioeconomy Science. With over 15 years’ experience in forest entomology, ecology, and invasive species management, he works across science, government and industry to strengthen biosecurity systems. His expertise includes risk assessment, surveillance, export biosecurity and incursion response. He also leads pathway risk management research within the Better Border Biosecurity (B3) collaboration. Nicolas contributes to national committees on forest surveillance, export risks and the intersection of climate change and biological invasions. Internationally, he serves as New Zealand’s focal point in the Asia-Pacific Forest Invasive Species Network and is an executive member of the Australasian Forest Health Working Group.

John Riggins serves as an Associate Professor at the Oregon State University's Department of Forest Engineering, Resources & Management. He studies the role of insects in forest ecosystems, seeking to address critical issues such as the impact of invasive species, the ecological consequences of insect-fungal interactions and the effects of forest disturbances on insect communities. This work helps to develop strategies for maintaining healthy and resilient forests.

Dr. Villari is an Associate Professor of Forest Pathology at the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, and a Co-Director of the Southern Pine Health Research Cooperative. In her research, she focuses on both basic and applied forest pathology, and her main scientific interest is the interaction among trees, fungal pathogens, and insect herbivores, and the related chemical ecology aspects. In her work, she uses an interdisciplinary approach that involves ecological, metabolomic, and molecular analyses. She leads an active laboratory and works in close collaboration with the Forest Service, the Georgia Forestry Commission, and the private industry sector. In the last few years, the major focus of her program has been the brown spot needle blight epidemic on the loblolly pine.

Myron (Meron) Zalucki is Emeritus Professor of Entomology in the School of the Environment at The University of Queensland, after 40 years in the place.  He obtained his first degree from the Australian National University (Canberra) and his PhD on resource use in animals with monarch butterflies as part of a study system in Griffith University (Brisbane).  Professor Zalucki was instrumental in setting up one of the first Cooperative Research Centers in Australia, the CRC for Tropical Pest Management, and was Australia’s representative on the International Congress of Entomology Council as well as its Secretary General.  He was awarded the Ian Mackerras Medal for excellence in Entomology by the Australian Entomological Society in 1996 and became a Fellow of The Entomological Society of America in 2014.  He is an insect ecologist with a long history of working on both pure and applied issues – particularly on the ecology, biology and management of pests of field crops, forests, and invasive species. Additionally, he has led large Australian government-funded projects on the Diamondback moth (DBM) in China, North Korea and the South Pacific. With students and colleagues, he has published over 450 referred papers and chapters in books and proceedings.