Andrea Milani Comparetti (

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, 19 June 1948 –

Pisa Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...

, 28 November 2018) was an Italian

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

and

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

, based at the

University of Pisa The University of Pisa (, UniPi) is a public university, 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 S ...

Biography

Andrea Milani Comparetti was born in

, in 1948. His father, Adriano Milani Comparetti, was a pioneer in child neuro-psychiatric rehabilitation and his uncle was Don Lorenzo Milani. In 1970 he graduated in Mathematics at the

University of Milan The University of Milan (; ), officially abbreviated as UNIMI, or colloquially referred to as La Statale ("the State niversity), is a public university, public research university in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest universities in Eu ...

and later he studied at the

Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa The Scuola Normale Superiore (commonly known in Italy as "la Normale") is a public university in Pisa and Florence, Tuscany, Italy, currently attended by about 600 undergraduate and postgraduate (PhD) students. Together with the University of Pi ...

. He then became a Full Professor of Mathematical Physics at the Department of Mathematics of the University of Pisa. He died on November 28, 2018, of a sudden illness, causing a deep loss in the scientific community.

Career

His areas of research included the

N

-body problem, the stability of the Solar System, asteroid dynamics, asteroid families, satellite geodesy, planetary exploration, orbit determination and asteroid impact risk assessment. In his brilliant career he pioneered most of the previous topics. He is the founder of the two web services NEODyS and AstDyS, dedicated to providing general information on all known asteroids. Furthermore, he was the developer, together with his collaborators over the years, of the software suite OrbFit. He was a member of SIMCA (Italian Society of Celestial Mechanics and Astrodynamics) and of the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

, where he occupied over eight different positions under several Commissions and Divisions: he was the President of Commission on “Celestial Mechanics & Dynamical Astronomy” (2003-2006), the Secretary of Commission for “Positions & Motions of Minor Planets, Comets & Satellites” (2012-2015), and the first President of the Cross-Division A-F Commission X2 “Solar System Ephemerides” (2015-2018). He also served as member of the Steering Committees of Divisions 1 and F. Among his hobbies, he enjoyed writing science fiction stories. Milani co-authored a book with Anna Maria Nobili and

Paolo Farinella Paolo Farinella (13 January 1953 – 25 March 2000) was an Italian scientist very active in the field of planetary science and in particular in the study of asteroids and small bodies of the Solar System. Biography Paolo Farinella was born on ...

on non-conservative forces on artificial satellites. More recently, he published a book with Giovanni Federico Gronchi on

orbit determination Orbit determination is the estimation of orbits of objects such as moons, planets, and spacecraft. One major application is to allow tracking newly observed asteroids and verify that they have not been previously discovered. The basic methods wer ...

and impact monitoring.

Awards

In 2010 he received the '' Brouwer Award'', awarded by the Division on Dynamical Astronomy of the American Astronomical Society. In 2016 he awarded the ''GAL Hassin prize''. The main-belt asteroid 4701 Milani has been named in his honour.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Milani, Andrea 20th-century Italian astronomers 20th-century Italian mathematicians 1948 births 2018 deaths Academic staff of the University of Pisa 21st-century Italian astronomers