Thomas Strasser received a master's and a PhD degree from the Technische Universität Wien (TU Wien) and he was awarded the Venia Docendi (habilitation) in the field of automation from the same university. For several years, he has been a senior scientist in the Center for Energy of the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology. His main responsibilities involve the strategic development of smart grid automation and validation research projects as well as the mentoring/supervising of junior scientists and PhD candidates. Before joining AIT, Dr Strasser spent more than 6 years as a senior researcher investigating advanced and reconfigurable automation and control systems at PROFACTOR research. He is also active as a docent at TU Wien.