Franco Malerba
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Franco Egidio Malerba (born 10 October 1946 in
Busalla Busalla is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Genoa in the Italian region Liguria, located about north of Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the upper valley of the Scrivia river. Nearby is the artificial Lake Busalletta. H ...
,
Metropolitan City of Genoa The Metropolitan City of Genoa ( it, Città Metropolitana di Genova) is one of the fourteen Metropolitan cities of Italy, located in the region of Liguria. Its capital is the city of Genoa. It replaced the Province of Genoa. History It was first c ...
, Italy) is an Italian
astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...
and
Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...
. He was the first citizen of Italy to travel to space. In 1994, he was elected to the European Parliament on the lists of
Forza Italia Forza ItaliaThe name is not usually translated into English: ''forza'' is the second-person singular imperative of ''forzare'', in this case translating to "to compel" or "to press", and so means something like "Forward, Italy", "Come on, Ital ...
, serving until 1999. Married to the former Marie-Aude Némo. They have one child. Recreational interests include mountaineering, skiing, and tennis. He is fluent in Italian, English, and French.


Education

*1965 Maturità classica (Lyceum). *1970 University degree, Electronics Engineer,
University of Genoa The University of Genoa, known also with the acronym UniGe ( it, Università di Genova), is one of the largest universities in Italy. It is located in the city of Genoa and regional Metropolitan City of Genoa, on the Italian Riviera in the Liguri ...
, Italy, specializing in the telecommunications field (laurea 110/110 cum Laude). *1974 Doctor in Physics, University of Genoa, (110/110) specializing in Biophysics (after research work at the
Italian National Research Council The National Research Council (Italian: ''Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, CNR'') is the largest research council in Italy. As a public organisation, its remit is to support scientific and technological research. Its headquarters are in Rome. ...
(CNR) and at the
National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...
, Bethesda, Maryland, USA).


Organizations

Founding Member of the Italian Space Society.


Research activities

*1970-75 Research Assistant at CNR's Laboratorio de Biofisica e Cibernetica (Genoa) carrying experimental work on membrane biophysics (using squid axons) and biological membrane modeling with lipid bilayers. *1971 Lecturer of Cybernetics and Information Theory at the Physics Faculty, University of Genoa. *1972 Summer Research Assistant at the Nato Saclant Research Center (La Spezia, Italy) working on computer-aided signal detection methodologies for sonar data systems. *1972-74 Research Fellow at the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, Maryland) designing, developing, testing and using a fast micro-spectrophotometer for research on photoreceptors biophysics (using frog retinas). * 1977-80 In 1977, Dr. Malerba was chosen by 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 (1205 ...
(ESA) as one of four European Payload Specialist Candidates for the first
Spacelab Spacelab was a reusable laboratory developed by European Space Agency (ESA) and used on certain spaceflights flown by the Space Shuttle. The laboratory comprised multiple components, including a pressurized module, an unpressurized carrier, ...
mission. After this selection he became a staff member at the
European Space Research and Technology Centre The European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) is the European Space Agency's main technology development and test centre for spacecraft and space technology. It is situated in Noordwijk, South Holland, in the western Netherlands, altho ...
(ESTEC) of ESA Space Science Department, Space Plasma Physics Division, working in the development, testing, and qualification of ES020 - PICPAB, an experiment in Ionospheric Plasma Physics for the first Spacelab payload, flown in 1983, involving the use of accelerated charged particle beams (cooperation involved French CNRS/CRPE, Norwegian NRDE and ESTEC).


Industry experience

*1976-89 Held technical and technical management positions with
Digital Equipment Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president until ...
in Italy and in Europe. He worked mainly in the field of multiprocessor systems (Paris 1976, Milan 1977), computer networks engineering (Geneva 1981-85), and telecommunications technology (Rome 1986–88, and Sophia Antipolis in 1989).


Military experience

Reserve Officer, ''
Marina Militare "Fatherland and Honour" , patron = , colors = , colors_label = , march = ( is the return of soldiers to their barrack, or sailors to their ship after a ...
''. Served in 1974-75 (Sottotenente Armi Navali); was assigned to the Destroyer as Science Lecturer to the Naval Academy, and then to the Mariperman Technical Center in La Spezia working on ELF transmission systems.


Other skills

Obtained scuba diving license from the Calypso Scuba Club, Geneva (1984).


Flying status

Obtained Private Pilot License (College Park, Washington, D.C., 1973) and then the equivalent Italian flying license.


Spaceflight experience

After selection in 1989 as a Payload Specialist by 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 ...
(ASI) and NASA, he became a staff member of ASI and was assigned to the NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, for training. In September 1991, he was designated Prime Payload Specialist for the TSS-1 Space Shuttle mission. Malerba flew as the first Italian citizen in space on STS-46 (31 July 1992 to 7 August 1992). He is now involved with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) manned space flight program follow-on activities.


External links

*
Spacefacts biography of Franco Malerba
{{DEFAULTSORT:Malerba 1946 births Italian astronauts Astronaut-politicians Living people Engineers from Genoa University of Genoa alumni Space Shuttle program astronauts National Research Council (Italy) people