Some aspects of virtual medicine and human space science research

Abstract: The evolution of astronomy goes always in parallel to the evolution of the available instruments. Sometimes, answering new astrophysical questions is possible when more powerful telescopes and instruments come into operation, bringing new capabilities and tools to the astronomers. Europe is world leader in ground-based astronomy, especially through the ESO observatory in Chile, now hosting the VLT complex of four 8.2-m optical telescopes. Future is coming soon with the outstanding ELT, the future giant 39-m telescope. But, as the time scale of these projects is huge, the right time is now to think about what’s next, even after the ELT. In this seminar we will review the existing scenario of optical telescopes and the starting effort to design the future Wide-field Spectroscopic Telescope, aiming to revolutionise the world of spectroscopy, which will address outstanding scientific questions in the areas of cosmology, galaxies, including our own Milky Way, origin of stars and planets, time domain and multi-messenger astrophysics.

Short bio:  He got his Electronic Engineering degree at the Federico II University of Naples in 1993 (summa cum laude). Since 30 years he has been working in the field of Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation for Astronomy.
In 1994 he started his work for the development of the TNG (Telescopio Nazionale Galileo) 3.5-m telescope at La Palma (Canary Islands). In 1997 he got a researcher staff position at INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, where now is Director of Research in Technology. He has worked in many projects in collaboration with ESO (European Southern Observatory). Since 2007 he has led a technological group involved in instrumental projects for many telescopes: MAVIS for VLT, SOXS for NTT, MORFEO for ELT, VSTPOL for VST, Vera C. Rubin Observatory.
In 1996-2002 he was member of the VIMOS (Visible Multi-Object Spectrograph for the ESO VLT) team, working to the development of the control system and participating to all phases of integration and commissioning in Paranal (Chile).
Afterward, for many years he has worked exclusively to the VST (VLT Survey Telescope), a 2.6-m wide-field telescope based on active optics for ESO Paranal, the most productive observatory of the world. He became progressively responsible of many telescope subsystems, then in 2007 he was appointed leader of the VST technological group, leading the project to a successful commissioning in Chile in 2011. In 2016-2023 he was the national responsible of the VST telescope.
Since 2016, he has served as Project Manager in the SOXS (Son Of X-Shooter) project for the ESO NTT, a wide-band spectrograph dedicated to the study of transient objects, currently going to be completed in Italy and shipped to Chile. Since 2022 he is Project Manager of the WST (Wide-field Spectroscopic Telescope) project, aiming to be the next big project of European astronomy after the ELT. Since 2022 he is PI of the VSTPOL project for the implementation of polarimetric capabilities at the VST telescope.
He has also worked within ESA space missions for the Solar System exploration (JANUS for JUICE, DREAMS for ExoMars 2016).
He has been member of several national and international boards. Member of the INAF Scientific Council in 2011-2015, INAF representative within the Campania Aerospace District (2012-today), member of the Technical Committee of the CTNA - Cluster Tecnologico Nazionale dell’Aerospazio (2020-today), member of several scientific collaborations for studying transient objects and wide-field surveys. He has given 14 university courses in technological topics. He has authored or co-authored about 300 papers on refereed journals or proceedings of international conferences.
Since 2024 he is Director at INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte.

Where: Accademia Pontaniana, Via Mezzocannone 8, 80134 Napoli NA. The colloquium will be also broadcast online, on Zoom.
How to join online: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84640651456?pwd=TlpSNkZKK25MVkxFdngySm1HZTh4QT09
Meeting ID: 846 4065 1456
Passcode: 656302