University of Dubna awarded honorary degree in Astrophysics to Massimo Capaccioli

Historical-artistic scenery, organic food and wine excellence and an evocative nighttime 'lesson' in astronomy will be the ingredients of the international cenacle that on Monday, July 25 starting at 9 p.m. at the Spartacus Arena of the Amphitheater Campano in Santa Maria Capua Vetere will celebrate the second honorary degree in Russia of astrophysicist Massimo Capaccioli, former creator, among his many scientific feats, of the construction of the world's most powerful telescope inside Chile's Paranal Astronomical Observatory.

Maremmano di Castel del Piano (Grosseto), born in 1944, Massimo Capaccioli, was for years the academic beacon of astronomy studies at the University of Padua, until the early 1990s, when he elected Campania as his adopted home, leading the Capodimonte Astronomical Observatory for 20 years and transferring his teaching as full professor of astronomy to the University of Naples Federico II, where he is now professor emeritus.

Within theInternational Astronomical Union, theEuropean Space Agency, the Italian Center for Aerospace Research or the Italian Astronomical Society, which he chaired for more than a decade, his studies became world-famous until the special tribute he received in Russia, first, in 2010, with an honorary degree in Astrophysics in the prestigious"Lomonosov Moscow State University," and then on July 4 with the "encore" granted to him by the University of Dubna, the city of physics, famous throughout the world for atomic studies and in particular in Italy for the adoption of physicist Bruno Pontecorvo, a student of Enrico Fermi, who became in the former Soviet Union, Bruno Maksimovič Pontekorvo, Stalin Prize in 1953 for his study of neutrinos and member of the prestigious USSR Academy of Sciences.

Massimo Capaccioli and the special bond with the city of Spartacus

After directing the Capodimonte Astronomical Observatory, which was also his home for twenty rich years of scientific and cultural animation of the city, Massimo Capaccioli has chosen in recent years as his home what he remembers as the "city of Spartacus and Hannibal, " Santa Maria Capua Vetere, where he lives a stone's throw from the Campanian Amphitheater, often engaged firsthand in numerous activities to enhance one of the most beautiful archaeological sites in the world.

Also because of this special bond of his with the city of San Marino, theFederico University of Naples, in collaboration with the Municipality of Santa Maria Capua Vetere and Amico Bio - Arena Spartacus, has organized his celebration for "the Russian campaign" precisely in the splendid night scenery of the Amphitheater Campano, which will also be the scene of a stargazing event led precisely by Massimo Capaccioli.

Paying their own tribute to Massimo Capaccioli on Monday evening at the Amphitheater Campano will be, among others, the Rector of the Federico II University, Gaetano Manfredi, the Mayor of Santa Maria Capua Vetere, Antonio Mirra, the Mayor of Marcianise, Antonello Velardi, the Pro Rector of the Second University of Naples, Rosanna Cioffi, the director of the Department of Mathematics and Physics of the Second University of Naples, Antonio D'Onofrio, astronomer Massimo Dall'Ora, a researcher at the National Institute of Astrophysics, and philosopher Gennaro Carillo, full professor of History of Philosophy at Suor Orsola Benincasa University.

And it will also be an evening with a strong international vocation thanks to the representation of Russian universities with the presence of Marina Dzhagaryan, coordinator of the Summer School project at Santa Maria Capua Vetere of the Russian University of Pyatigorsk, and the presence of Iraqi astronomer Ali Talib, professor of Astronomy at theUniversity of Baghdad and visiting professor of Astrophysics at the Second University of Naples, and the director of the Reggia di Caserta, Mauro Felicori, who has just returned from a cultural expedition to St. Petersburg to promote an important collaboration with the Hermitage Museum.