Alessandra Gragnani received the five-year honors degree in Electronic Engineering and the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science and Automation from the Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy in 1994 and 1998, respectively. She has been Guest Researcher at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria and at the Department of Aquatic Ecology, Wageningen University, The Netherlands. She is currently Assistant Professor at the Politecnico di Milano. Her teaching activity includes the area of environmental modelling, both to undergraduate and graduate students of the Politecnico schools of engineering. Her research interests are within the broad area of nonlinear dynamical systems and applications to social and environmental problems. She is co-author of more than 20 international journal and book publications.