Simone Marchi (born July 14, 1973) is an

Italian-American Italian Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Italians, Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeastern United States, Northeast and industrial Midwestern United States, Midwestern ...

astrophysicist and Institute Scientist in the Southwest Research Institute's Solar System Science and Exploration Division in

Boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. Marchi's main research interests are the formation and evolution of the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

, and in particular,

asteroids An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

and terrestrial planets.

Career

Marchi received his bachelor's degree in

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

in 1998 and his Ph.D. in

Applied Physics Applied physics is the application of physics to solve scientific or engineering problems. It is usually considered a bridge or a connection between physics and engineering. "Applied" is distinguished from "pure" by a subtle combination of fac ...

in 2003 from

Pisa University The University of Pisa (, UniPi) is a public research university in Pisa, Italy. Founded in 1343, it is one of the oldest universities in Europe. Together with Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, it is part ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Research

Marchi trained at the Physics and Astronomy Departments at Pisa and Padua Universities in Italy, achieving both a theoretical and observational background.Marchi was a

Research Fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a p ...

from 2003 to 2010 at the Department of Astronomy, Padova University, Italy. In 2007, Marchi was a Visiting Scientist at German Aerospace Agency (DLR) in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. From 2010 to 2011 he served as a Research Fellow at Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis and Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur in

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, and from 2011 to 2014 he was a NASA Fellow at Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute in Boulder, Colorado and

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. Since 2014, Marchi has held various positions at the Southwest Research Institute and in 2024 was promoted to Institute Scientist. Marchi's main research interest is studying collisional processes using numerical computations to understand the consequences of large asteroids colliding with the Earth and other rocky planets. Thanks to these studies, Marchi won the international Farinella Prize and the NASA Susan Mahan Niebur Early Career Award.

Space missions

Marchi is involved in several space missions, including: Deputy Principal Investigator for

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

's Lucy mission to visit

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...

Trojan asteroid In astronomy, a trojan is a small celestial body (mostly asteroids) that shares the orbit of a larger body, remaining in a stable orbit approximately 60° ahead of or behind the main body near one of its Lagrangian points and . Trojans can shar ...

s; Co-Investigator of NASA's Psyche mission to rendezvous with a rare metallic asteroid; Co-Investigator of the stereo camera SIMBIOSYS for ESA's BepiColombo mission to Mercury; Co-Investigator of the camera JANUS for ESA's JUICE mission to Jupiter's

Galilean Moons The Galilean moons (), or Galilean satellites, are the four largest moons of Jupiter. They are, in descending-size order, Ganymede (moon), Ganymede, Callisto (moon), Callisto, Io (moon), Io, and Europa (moon), Europa. They are the most apparent m ...

; Co-Investigator of NASA's ''Dawn'' mission that visited asteroids Vesta and

Ceres Ceres most commonly refers to: * Ceres (dwarf planet), the largest asteroid and first to be discovered * Ceres (mythology), the Roman goddess of agriculture Ceres may also refer to: Places Brazil * Ceres, Goiás, Brazil * Ceres Microregion ...

; and Associate Scientist of the camera OSIRIS on board ESA's Rosetta spacecraft that explored comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

Publications

Marchi is author (or co-author) of more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, and has published a popular science book, ''Colliding Worlds: How Cosmic Encounters Shaped Planets and Life'', published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

in 2021 and served as an Editor of the academic book Vesta and Ceres, published by the Cambridge University Press (2022).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marchi, Simone Italian astrophysicists 1973 births Living people University of Pisa alumni