Professor Giovanni Fabrizio BIGNAMI is a physicist and astronomer. Over the last 40 years he has carried out research in astronomy, from the ground and from space. A professor of astrophysics at IUSS, Pavia, he has been President of the Italian Space Agency and is now the President of COSPAR, the world-wide Committee on Space Research. He is President of The National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and has received various awards, including the Rossi Prize of the American Astronomical Society, the Blaise Pascal Medal of the European Academy of Sciences and the von Karman Award of the International Astronautics Academy. Professor Bignami is one of the most authoritative scientists in astrophysical and space research and identified the neutron star "Geminga."