Having conceived and implemented with NASA and the Max-Planck Institute in Munich essential experiments for the study of cosmic rays, Alessandro De Angelis is a recognized authority in high-energy astrophysics. Graduated from the University of Padua and later a member of CERN, De Angelis is Professor of Experimental Physics at the Universities of Padua and Lisbon and Scientific Counsellor of the Italian Permanent Delegation to the International Organizations in Paris. Besides numerous scientific articles and textbooks on Astroparticle Physics, he has published three popular books on Galilei and the history of science in the Renaissance.