Dr. Claudio Maccone

Dr. Claudio Maccone passed away on 20 August 2025, in Torino, Italy. He was the Director for Scientific Space Exploration of the International Academy of Astronautics. He was elected a Corresponding Member for Section 2 on Engineering Sciences in 1997 and a Full Member in 2001. He was also an Italian SETI astronomer, space scientist and mathematician.

He obtained two degrees from the University of Turin: in physics in 1972 and in mathematics in 1974. He obtained his PhD at the Department of mathematics of King’s College London, England in September 1980. In 1985 he briefly held a position as”Professore di ruolo” in Mathematics at “Liceo Scientifico Albert Einstein” in Turin.
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 on September 19,1985, and immediately got involved in the design of new space missions. 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.”

After his early retirement from Alenia Spazio S.p.A. on December 30, 2004, he taught at Politecnico di Torino for five years (2005-2009) at Post-Doctoral level. He was Advisor to Ph.D. candidates in the Aerospace and Electronics Departments of Politecnico di Torino.
From 2012 to 2021 he served as Chair of the IAA SETI Permanent Committee. He has published 149 scientific and technical papers.

Please also see:
the SETI Institute website.
the Cosmo2050 website.