Claudio Maccone

Claudio Maccone (born 6 February 1948, Torino, Italy) is an Italian SETI astronomer, space scientist and mathematician. In 2002 he was awarded the “Giordano Bruno Award” by the SETI League, "for his efforts to establish a radio observatory on the far side of the Moon." In 2010 he was appointed Technical Director for Scientific Space exploration by the International Academy of Astronautics. Since 2012, he has chaired the SETI Permanent Committee [1] of the International Academy of Astronautics, succeeding Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute, who held that position from 2002 to 2012. Maccone's two vice-chairs are his fellow Academicians Michael Garrett (astronomer), Director of Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics and Leonid Gurvits (IJVE).

He obtained his PhD at the Department of Mathematics of King's College London in 1980. He then joined the Space Systems Group of Aeritalia (later called Alenia Spazio S.p.A. and now Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A.) in Turin as a technical expert for the design of artificial satellites, and got involved in the design of space missions. In 2000 he was elected as Co-Vice Chair of the SETI Committee of the IAA. He has published over 100 scientific and technical papers, most of them in "Acta Astronautica." In 2010, Maccone was appointed Technical Director of Scientific Space Missions for the International Academy of Astronautics. In 2012, he became a founding member of the Advisory Council of the Institute for Interstellar Studies.

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