Andrea Milani Comparetti (

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

, 19 June 1948 –

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' 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 its leaning tower, the cit ...

, 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, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

and

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

, based at the

University of Pisa The University of Pisa ( it, Università di Pisa, UniPi), officially founded in 1343, is one of the oldest universities in Europe. History The Origins The University of Pisa was officially founded in 1343, although various scholars place ...

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

and later he studied at the

Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa The Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa (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. It was founded in 1810 wi ...

. 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, for 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; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ...

, 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 Anna Maria Nobili (born 1949) is an Italian physicist active in the field of gravitational physics. Her institution is Pisa University. She authored a number of papers on satellite dynamics and co-authored a book with Andrea Milani and Paolo ...

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 The Brouwer Award is awarded annually by the Division on Dynamical Astronomy of the American Astronomical Society for outstanding lifetime achievement in the field of dynamical astronomy. The prize is named for Dirk Brouwer. Recipients Source ...

'', 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