Eugenio Coccia - Biography#

Eugenio Coccia is an experimental physicist in the field of astroparticle physics, with a focus on gravitational wave experiments and interest on neutrinos and cosmic rays detectors.

He is recognized for his major contribution to the realisation of the first long term observatories with detectors of gravitational waves, and for his international role in the gravitational wave community and in the broader community of astroparticle physics.

He graduated in Physics, cum laude, from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in 1980 in the group of Edoardo Amaldi and Guido Pizzella; he has been Post-Doc Fellow at CERN (1981-1985), then associate professor (1988-1999) and full professor (since 2000) at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”.

He spent long periods at CERN, at the INFN Frascati Laboratory and at INFN Gran Sasso Laboratory, and shorter periods at the University of Leiden, in the Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory.

Its main scientific contribution regarded the development and use of both quantum and traditional technologies on gravitational wave experiments: 3He3-4He dilution refrigerators, superconducting electronics and dcSquids, acoustic and seismic noise reduction. The main results range from the very first acoustic detection of cosmic rays to the upper limits on the arrival of pulses of gravitational waves and on the presence of a stochastic background; from the first dynamic measurement of the gravitational field generated by an artificial source; to the first study of correlations with neutrino pulses and gamma ray bursts.

He has directed the EXPLORER experiment at CERN (1998-2010) and leads the NAUTILUS experiment at the INFN Frascati Laboratories. He is a member of VIRGO, the scientific collaboration realizing the largest European laser interferometer gravitational-wave experiment in Pisa.

At present, he is the Director of the INFN Center of Advanced Studies and PhD School “Gran Sasso Science Institute”, Chair of the Gravitational Wave International Committee (GWIC), member of the Astroparticle Physics International Committee (APPIC), member of the Council of the Italian Physical Society.

He has been the Director of the INFN Gran Sasso Laboratory (2003-2009), Chair of the INFN Scientific Committee on Astroparticle Physics (2002-2003) and President of the Italian Society of General Relativity and Gravitational Physics (2000-2004).

He has been member of international committees as ECFA (European Committee on Future Accelerators) and PANAGIC (Particle and Nuclear Astrophysics and Gravitation International Committee), and has been invited to be a member of international panels on the strategies of particle and astroparticle physics by CERN, the OECD Global Science Forum, the US National Academy of Sciences and the European Physical Society.

He has given lectures and seminars in Universities and research centers all over the world and is the author of more than 250 scientific articles in international journals.