In memory of Lucio Paternò

Abstract

Professor Lucio Paternò, full Professor of Astrophysics at Catania University, elected foreign member of the Academy of Sciences of France and member emeritus of the Gioenia Academy, died on 21 February 2017, at the age of 77. After the high school at the Gesuiti College, Lucio Paternò graduated at Catania University in 1964 with a dissertation on electronics. Thanks to this knowledge, he took part in the JOSO project and he planned the sensor net to measure the micro-turbulences on the atmospheric low layers. Since 1971 he has been astronomer at Catania Astrophysical Observatory until 1983 when he became associate Professor of Physics at the Faculty of Engineering of Catania University. In the same Institution since 2000 Lucio Paternò has been full Professor of Astrophysics at the Faculty of Science. In the field of innovative research on the stellar activity of solar type, Lucio studied the angular momentum transport in the Sun, the theory of the interaction mechanism of rotation with convection and magnetic fields which generate differential rotation, magnetic activity and X-rays emission in the Sun and in the solar type stars. Besides the theoretical studies of the internal structure and evolution of the Sun and stars by means of helioseismic and asteroseismic techniques, he was also interested in the solar neutrino problem and the magnetic field in the pulsars.