The Italian National Academy of Sciences has awarded Marco Tavani, National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), the Matteucci Medal, the award for Italian and foreign physicists for the fundamental contribution made to the progress of science through their works or discoveries.

Marco Tavani is the Scientific Director of AGILE, the all-Italian space mission launched in 2007, a collaboration between the Italian Space Agency (ASI), the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), the National Research Council (CNR), INAF and national industries. The mission – devoted to high energy astrophysics – led to the discovery of transient gamma-ray emission from the Crab Nebula, a result of great scientific importance that proves the existence of a new particle acceleration mechanism.

For this and other important results obtained with the AGILE mission, Marco Tavani received the prestigious Bruno Rossi Prize from the American Astronomical Society in 2012. The Committee of the Matteucci Prize 2017, composed of members of the National Academy of Sciences Paolo De Bernardis, Luciano Maiani and Giorgio Parisi, unanimously awarded the Medal 2017 to Marco Tavani.

Source: ResearchItaly