Giovanni Fabrizio Bignami (10 April 1944 – 24 May 2017) was an Italian physicist. From March 2007 until August 2008, he was Chairman of the

Italian Space Agency The Italian Space Agency ( it, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana; ASI) is a government agency established in 1988 to fund, regulate and coordinate space exploration activities in Italy. The agency cooperates with numerous national and international entit ...

. Between 2010 and 2014, he was the first Italian to chair the

Committee on Space Research The Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) was established on October 3, 1958 by the International Council for Scientific Unions (ICSU). Among COSPAR's objectives are the promotion of scientific research in space on an international level, wi ...

(COSPAR), and from 2011 until 2015, he was President of

INAF The National Institute for Astrophysics ( it, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, or INAF) is an Italian research institute in astronomy and astrophysics, founded in 1999. INAF funds and operates twenty separate research facilities, which in turn ...

. He was also the chairman of the SKA project. He was married to fellow Italian astrophysicist

Patrizia A. Caraveo Patrizia Caraveo (born April 8, 1954, Milan) is an Italian astrophysicist. Biography Patrizia Caraveo graduated in Physics at the physics department of the University of Milan in 1977. After a period abroad, in 2002 she began working at the I ...

Career

Bignami graduated from the

University of Milan The University of Milan ( it, Università degli Studi di Milano; la, Universitas Studiorum Mediolanensis), known colloquially as UniMi or Statale, is a public university, public research university in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest uni ...

in 1968 with a degree in physics. From 1988 to 1997, he was the Principal Investigator for the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...

XMM-Newton ''XMM-Newton'', also known as the High Throughput X-ray Spectroscopy Mission and the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission, is an X-ray space observatory launched by the European Space Agency in December 1999 on an Ariane 5 rocket. It is the second cornerst ...

mission, and was a professor of

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

and

astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the he ...

at the IUSS Pavia in

Pavia Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the cap ...

. He is most known for his discovery of the

neutron star A neutron star is the collapsed core of a massive supergiant star, which had a total mass of between 10 and 25 solar masses, possibly more if the star was especially metal-rich. Except for black holes and some hypothetical objects (e.g. w ...

Geminga Geminga is a gamma ray and x-ray pulsar source thought to be a neutron star approximately 250 parsecs (around 800 light-years) from the Sun in the constellation Gemini. Its name, attributed by its discoverer Giovanni Bignami, is bo ...

. From 2004 to 2007, he was President of the Space Science Advisory Committee (SSAC) of the European Space Agency, and from 2007 to 2008, he was Chairman of the Italian Space Agency. Bignami stood as a

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

candidate for Lombardy, Piedmont, Valle d'Aosta and Liguria in the

2009 European Parliament election The 2009 European Parliament election was held in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected to represent some 500 million Europeans, making th ...

. His campaign slogan was "Più ricerca in Italia, più futuro in Europa" ("More research in Italy and Europe.") He was not elected. In 2010, he was elected President of the

(COSPAR), the first Italian to do so. He held the post until 2014. From 2011 until 2015, Bignami was also President of

. Bignami received several honours, including the

Bruno Rossi Prize The Bruno Rossi Prize is awarded annually by the High Energy Astrophysics division of the American Astronomical Society "for a significant contribution to High Energy Astrophysics, with particular emphasis on recent, original work". Named after a ...

from the American Astronomical Society, the Blaise Pascal Medal for Astrophysics from the European Academy of Sciences and the Von Karman Award from the

International Academy of Astronautics The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) is an independent non-governmental organization established in Stockholm (Sweden) on August 16, 1960, by Dr. Theodore von Kármán, and recognized by the United Nations in 1996. The IAA has elect ...

. He also was named Officier of the

Légion d’Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

and the

Ordre national du Mérite The Ordre national du Mérite (; en, National Order of Merit) is a French order of merit with membership awarded by the President of the French Republic, founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle. The reason for the order's es ...

, and member of the

Accademia dei Lincei The Accademia dei Lincei (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed", but anglicised as the Lincean Academy) is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini, Rome, Palazzo Corsini on the Vi ...

and of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at th ...

. Bignami died on 24 May 2017 in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...

, Spain.

Works

* (it) ''La storia nello spazio'', Milan, Mursia, 2001, . * (it) ''L'esplorazione dello spazio. Alla scoperta del sistema solare'', Bologna, Il Mulino, 2006, . * (it) I marziani siamo noi. Un filo rosso dal Big Bang alla vita, Bologna, Zanichelli, 2010, . Translated into English as ''We are the Martians'',

Springer Springer or springers may refer to: Publishers * Springer Science+Business Media, aka Springer International Publishing, a worldwide publishing group founded in 1842 in Germany formerly known as Springer-Verlag. ** Springer Nature, a multinationa ...

, Berlin, 2012 * (it) Cosa resta da scoprire, Milano, Mondadori, 2011, . Ristampato nel 2012 nella serie bestseller “Oscar”. Translated into English as ''Imminent Science'', Springer, 2014 * (it) G. Bignami-Cristina Bellon, Il futuro spiegato ai ragazzi, Milano, Mondadori, 2012, . * (it) Il mistero delle sette sfere. Cosa resta da esplorare. Dalla depressione di Afar alle stelle più vicine, Milano, Mondadori, 2013, . Translated into English as ''The Mystery of the Seven Spheres'', Springer, 2015 * A Scenario for Interstellar Exploration and Its Financing, Heidelberg, Springer Verlag, 2013, . * (it) G. Bignami-Andrea Sommariva, ''Oro dagli asteroidi e asparagi da Marte. Realtà e miti dell'esplorazione dello spazio'', Milan, Mondadori University, 2015, . * G. Bignami-Andrea Sommariva, The Future of Human Space Exploration,

Macmillan MacMillan, Macmillan, McMillen or McMillan may refer to: People * McMillan (surname) * Clan MacMillan, a Highland Scottish clan * Harold Macmillan, British statesman and politician * James MacMillan, Scottish composer * William Duncan MacMillan ...

, 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bignami, Giovanni 1944 births 2017 deaths People from Desio Italian astrophysicists Members of the French Academy of Sciences Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Officers of the Ordre national du Mérite University of Milan alumni