 He obtained his PhD at the Department of Mathematics of King's College London in 1980.He then joined the Space Systems Group of Aeritalia (later called Alenia Spazio S.p.A. and now Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A.) in Turin as a technical expert for the design of artificial satellites, and got involved in the design of space missions.In 2000 he was elected as Co-Vice Chair of the SETI Committee of the IAA.