Director
PIETRO UBERTINI (PU) has been instrumental in establishing the missing link between X and ?-ray astronomy and in developing this new space-age discipline. His work has been essential in discovering different classes of ?-ray sources in the Galaxy, as well as in resolving the 30 years mystery of the diffuse Galactic plane emission in hundreds of neutron stars and black holes.
Coordination activity by PU as a Principal Investigator of the Integral observatory yielded the first All sky soft-?-ray catalogue, a template for today’s and future workers in the field, casting a new light on the soft ?-ray sky population and its impact on cosmology.
Recently, he took part in a theoretical investigation on the role of the discovery of ?-ray polarisation from Crab Nebula and implication on Lorenz Invariance principle and Quantum Gravity and Electro-Dynamic Theory.
Director of the Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica (Space Astrophysics and Cosmic Physics Institute, IASF) of Rome, part of the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) since 2005.
He was appointed as Director with the mandate to separate the former IASF-CNR composed by the HQ and the three sections in Milan, Bologna and Palermo that, with a total staff exceeding 300 people, was the largest Space institute in Italy.
PU managed a smooth separation of the four establishments, finalised in September 2005, then maintaining the position of Director of the former HQ in Rome, with more than 100 staff.
PU in the next two years achieved a budget increase (dedicated to research activity) for his institute from 2.9M€ to 6.3M€, plus 3.0M€ for salaries, and number of published papers from 162 to 262 per year..
