Franco Pacini
Franco Pacini (10 May 1939 – 25 January 2012) was an Italian astrophysicist and professor at the University of Florence. He carried out research, mostly in High Energy Astrophysics, in Italy, France, United States and at the European Southern Observatory. Biography. Pacini was born in Florence on 10 May 1939, however he moved early on to Urbino. His parents were Gualtiero Pacini, a teacher from Urbino and Elsa Roesch, born in Baden, Switzerland. Pacini was married in 1966 to Rosemary Winterer, a teacher, born in St. Louis, Missouri. They had three children: Giulia, Tommaso and Giorgio. Pacini graduated from  a local high school, Raffaello, in Urbino. He studied physics at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa and later at the Sapienza in Rome, where he graduated in 1964. Pacini's thesis (Livio Gratton was his advisor) was about neutron stars, which were hypothetical objects at the time. Pacini continued to work on neutron stars at Institut d'astrophysique de Paris, where he was a post-doctoral fellow. Pacini continued his research on neutron stars at the Institute d'Astrophysique in Paris. From 1967 to 1973, he was research associate and visiting professor at Cornell University. In 1967 he published in "Nature  the first specific suggestion that strongly magnetized neutron stars could release their rotational energy and produce a large flow of relativistic particles. The discovery of pulsars in Cambridge (UK) proved the correctness of his hypothesis a few months later by Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish of University of Cambridge. In 1968 in another Nature" article, Pacini wrote that at the center of the Crab nebula would be found a pulsar, which would explain the emission of electromagnetic radiation. The discovery of the strong infrared emission from some starburst galaxies, Pacini, together with Martin Harwit, suggested that these sources are  related to an evolutionary stage of a galaxy during which massive stars are being formed, a scenario which is now generally accepted. In 1975 Pacini joined the newly created scientific group of the European Southern Observatory in Geneva; Pacini served as President from 1975 to 1978. He was instrumental also for Italy to enter into the ESO. On returning to Italy in 1978, he became Director of the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory in Florence and a professor at the University of Florence. He held this post until 2001. During his tenure the Observatory greatly expanded its scientific activity in different areas , in a broad context of international collaborations. In particular, during this period the Arcetri Observatory became partner in the construction of the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). In 1982 Pacini was one of the 69 signatories signing a petition circulated by Carl Sagan: "Extraterrestrial Intelligence: An International Petition". Pacini had an ability to use humorous images when talking about science, as can be read in article by Virginia Trimble and Markus Aschwanden: "What is in the jets? Franco Pacini is supposed to have said that relativistic tomatoes would do." He was member of a large number of international boards and committees . He was President of the International Astronomical Union for a three-year period (2001–03). He was Member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Associate Member of the Royal Astronomical Society and Member of the American Astronomical Society. At the 25th General Assembly of the IAU, held in Sydney in 2003, he proposed to designate 2009 the International Year of Astronomy as a way to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first telescopic observations. Asteroid 25601 Francopacini is named after him. In 1997 he received the Prize of the Italian Government for Science. Over the years he carried out a  wide range of activities aimed at communicating science to the general public, including children and adults, with frequent public lectures, popular articles in newspapers, books and appearances on television. Pacini was involved in starting Children's Day at Arcetri Observatory. He also wrote five children's books. Children's books. Pacini wrote five children’s books with Lara Albanese: