Panelist

Luca Di Fino

Luca Di Fino

Utilization Manager, International Space Station Program
Italian Space Agency

Luca Di Fino is currently the ISS Utilization Manager at the Italian Space Agency (ASI), Rome, Italy, and he is responsible for the overall management, integration and operation of all the Italian Payloads on the ISS.

Being the primary Point of Contact for ISS operations, he manages the interactions with NASA and ESA for the deployment of the operation plans, he is the main interface to the Research lntegration Office and the Mission lntegration ad Operation Office at NASA. In addition, he is the ASI representative at the Multilateral Research lntegration Control Board (MIRCB), at the Multilateral Mission lntegration ad Operation Control Office (MMIOCB), at the User Operation Panel (UOP), at the System Operation Panel (SOP), and at the Multilateral Research Planning Working Group (MRPWG).

For the Ax-3 Private Mission, he managed all the integration and operations of the 4 Italian Payloads that was operated by the Italian astronaut Walter Villadei, being also the point of contact with Axiom for the contractualization of the mission.

In addition to his role as the ISS Utilization Manager, he is the ASI Project Scientist for LIDAL (Light Ion Detector for ALTEA), the Program Manager for UTISS (a support contract for ISS Utilization) and the ASI System Manager for the development and test of the detector prototypes of the High Energy cosmic- Radiation Detector (HERD).

Prior to his role as the ISS Utilization Manager at ASI, Luca Di Fino has been a researcher at the Physics Department at Tor Vergata University of Rome since 2006, working on space detectors for the assessment of human health risk, mainly ALTEA (Anomalous Long Term Effects on Astronauts), that was onboard the ISS between 2006 and 2012, and LIDAL , that was installed in the International Space Station, Columbus, on January 19, 2020 and still operating. In particular, he was the Science Software Manager and the Data Analysis Team Leader for ALTEA since 2003 and the Operation Leader for the ground support activities within the Principal Investigator team, both in NASA and ESA environments, since 2006. Later he was the Program Manager for LIDAL. Both detectors are designed to measure flux, and energy spectra of cosmic rays, to which LIDAL is adding the first measurement of Time of Flight inside a space habitat.

During his career, Luca Di Fino was also software developer, a physics teacher and a teacher trainer.

Luca Di Fino holds a master’s degree in physics and a PhD in Microelectronics Systems and Space Detectors from Tor Vergata University of Rome.