Paolo Mercorelli received his MS degree (Laurea) in Electronic Engineering from the University of Florence, Italy, in 1992, and Ph.D. degree in Systems Engineering from Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Italy, in 1998. He was awarded the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Research Fellowship sponsored by the European Commission in 1998, and spent time in the ABB (Asea Brown Boveri) Corporate Research Heidelberg until 2001. From 2002 to 2005, he was a Senior Researcher with the Institute of Automation and Informatics, Wernigerode, Germany. From 2005 to 2011, he became Associate Professor of Process Informatics at Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, Wolfsburg, Germany. There, he was involved in various projects with the Volkswagen AG Research Center. Since 2012, he has been a distinguished Full Professor (Chair) of Control and Drive Systems at the Institute of Product and Process Innovation, Leuphana University of Lueneburg, Lueneburg, in Germany, and has recently obtained an International Distinguished Visiting Professor Fellowship at the Institute of Automatic Control of Lodz University of Technology, in Poland.