Alessandro Morbidelli

For his publication; "A secular integrator for asteroid fragments", Planetary and Space Science, 41, 1993

Alessandro Morbidelli was born in ’ Priocca, Italy, on May, 2, 1966. He graduated in Physics at the University of Milan in 1988, with specialization on dynamical systems and perturbation theories. Afterwards, he moved to Namur, Belgium, where he received a doctorate in Mathematics in 1991, with specialization in celestial mechanics and dynamical astronomy. As a post-doctoral student at the Observatory of Nice, in 1992, he won the French CNRS national competition for a permanent position as astronomer at the same observatory.

His research activity during these years concentrated on two interrelated subjects. On the one hand, in the field of Astronomy, he lead a detailed exploration of the dynamics in the asteroid belt, studying the location of regular and chaotic regions and the dynamics of resonances (mean motion and secular ones), developing algorithms for the computation of proper elements and for the fast integration of the secular changes of orbits and investigating the mechanisms of chaotic transport and delivery of meteorites to the Earth. On the other hand, in the field of the theory of dynamical systems, he developed a new algorithm in perturbation theory and investigated the properties of diffusion in chaotic regions. He is working now on the universal structure of the phase space around the invariant tori of the Kolmogorv Arnold Moser theory.