Parma, 11 May 2024 – Live web – Four steps between stars and planets, with two exceptional guides. It promises this and much more Space for ingenuitymeeting with Amalia Ercoli Finzi And Walter Villadei scheduled for Wednesday 15 May at 11am in the Aula Magna of the University of Parma.
The appointment will be opened by institutional greetings from the Vice Rector Fabrizio Storti and will be moderated by the journalist Giovanna Pavesi.
Amalia Ercoli Finzi, aeronautical engineer and honorary professor of the Polytechnic of Milan, and Walter Villadei, space engineer, astronaut and representative of the Air Force in the USA, will talk about space and beyond, also taking inspiration from Colonel Villadei’s recent mission: between January and February the astronaut participated as a pilot in Ax-3, the third private mission directed towards the International Space Station (ISS), organized by Axiom Space. Ax-3 was the first commercial space mission with an all-European crew to the ISS, where it remained for 18 days. Among the objectives of the Ax-3 mission is to increase skills related to human activities in space, both in the medical and technological fields, through experiments in microgravity.
The meeting will also be broadcast live on the University website.
Amalia Ercoli Finzi
Formerly full professor of Aerospace Mechanics and now honorary professor of the Polytechnic of Milan, Amalia Ercoli Finzi has carried out her activity in the field of Orbital Mechanics and Space Mission Design. Called to be part of the strategic commissions that plan space activities intended for planetary exploration, she was a member of the Scientific Technical Council of the Italian Space Agency, of the Mars Exploration Task Force for the joint ASI-NASA Martian exploration program and of the Exploration Program Advisory Committee of the European Space Agency for the planning of space missions to Mars. She was Principal Investigator of the SD2 experiment of the European Rosetta mission, one of the cornerstones of the European Space Agency, intended for the drilling of the cometary nucleus and the collection of samples, and coordinator of the Italian team for the realization of the AMALIA lunar robotic mission. Already a member of the High-level Scientific Program Advisory Committee (HISPAC) of the European Space Agency and of the International Academy of Astronautics, he represented Italy in the European Horizon 2020 Programme. He has received numerous awards and honours. The asteroid 24890 Amaliafinzi was named after her in 2018 by the International Astronomical Union and in 2021 ESA gave her name, Amalia, to the Ground Test Rover of the ExoMars Mission. Amalia Ercoli Finzi has carried out and carries out an intense activity for the promotion of the presence of women in scientific faculties and in particular in aerospace engineering
Walter Villadei
Having entered the regular courses of the Air Force Academy in 1993, he graduated as the first space engineer of the Air Force in 1998, from the Federico II University. Immediately after the Academy he was assigned to the Operations Department of the 46th Air Brigade in Pisa and participated in several international operations. At the end of 2003 he was transferred to the Air Force General Staff, where the Armed Forces resumed activities in the space sector with renewed interest. He participated in the drafting of the first policy documents in the space sector of the Armed Forces and Defense (such as the Defense Space Plan) and continued to deal with space in national, international and multilateral programs.
From 2014 to 2018 he was a member of the Scientific Technical Committee of the Italian Space Agency and National Representative at the European Commission, for the Space Surveillance and Tracking Support Framework initiative, a program that led to the creation of a first national Space Situational capability Awaneress and Italy’s entry into the first European Consortium for space security. From 2017 to 2022 he was Office Head of the newly established General Office for Air Force Space and since March 2022 he has been responsible for the Representative Office of the Air Force in the USA, in Houston, for space access and commercial spaceflight.
