Giorgio Fiocco (13 June 1931 – 31 July 2012) was an Italian physicist, known for the development of the

Lidar Lidar (, also LIDAR, or LiDAR; sometimes LADAR) is a method for determining ranges (variable distance) by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. It can also be ...

for the remote sensing of the atmosphere. In 1962 at MIT, together with Louis Smullin, Fiocco developed the first Lidar system, aiming a laser beam to the Moon and detecting the return pulse. Fiocco was full professor of geophysics at the University of Florence, then since 1974, professor of Terrestrial Physics at the

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a Public university, public research university l ...

. From 1994 to 1995 Fiocco was president 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 ...

. Fiocco pioneered the application of the Lidar to the remote sensing of the atmosphere. He died in Rome on 31 July 2012.

Publications

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References

* * 1931 births 2012 deaths Italian physicists Scientists from Rome Atmospheric physicists {{Physicist-stub