Dr. Giovanni Lapenta was a Senior Research Scientist at SSI and a professor at KU Leuven in Belgium. Giovanni's research was in the intersection of space plasma physics, numerical methods and high-performance computing, AI, and nuclear engineering, and he contributed important publicly accessible codes to the physics community. Giovanni obtained his PhD from Politecnico di Torino (Italy) in 1993; after which he went on to join the plasma theory group at Los Alamos National Laboratory. In 2017 Giovanni joined SSI where he worked on numerous NASA/NSF funded awards in the field of space plasma physics.

Giovanni was well regarded by his peers and students and continued to perform quality research while privately battling cancer. Giovanni's passing is a tragic loss to our SSI family as well as the broader community of space physics. He will be sorely missed.

Giovanni is survived by his mother -- online condolences can be provided at: Giovanni Lapenta