Marco Lavalle ESA/ESRIN Via Galileo Galilei, 00044 Frascati ITALY e-mail: lavalle (at) disp.uniroma2.it Phone: +39 06 941 80948 http://www.uniroma2.it Marco was born in Italy in 1982. He received the M.Sc. degree cum laude in Telecommunication Engineering from University Tor Vergata of Rome. He carried out his thesis work at European Space Agency (ESA-ESRIN), Space and Application Department, where he developed a tool for the correction of geometric distortions of SAR data designed for the GRID computing environment G-POD. Since October 2006, he has been attending the GeoInformation and Remote Sensing Ph.D. Programme at University Tor Vergata of Rome. His main research topic is the retrieval of bio-physical parameters from vegetation using polarimetric and interferometric technique, including the modelling and the quantitative estimation. He attended several international courses and training organised by ESA in the field of remote sensing and he was Visitor Student at University of Rennes, IETR Research Group. He is currently hosted by ESA-ESRIN (Frascati), where he is involved in the ground segment processing of the SAR sensor ALOS-PALSAR, as well as its calibration and on-orbit demonstration. He also supports other ESA activities such as scientific conferences and training courses.