Luigi Folco

Luigi Folco,(PhD) Fellow of the Meteoritical Society
Rome (Italy), 21.09.1965; married, father of two sons
ORCID ID# 0000-0002-7276-3483

CURRENT POSITION
Luigi Folco, PhD (Open University, UK), is full professor of petrography and petrology of planetary materials at the Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Pisa, Italy. Here he teaches Planetary Geology, Cosmochemistry and Geowriting, and chairs the Corso di Laurea Magistrale in Scienze e Tecnologie Geologiche

AWARDS
Fellow of the Meteoritical Society and member of the Barringer Award Committee.
Main Belt 7006 Folco asteroid named after him by the International Astronomical Union, in recognition of his contribution to research on planetary materials.
Carlo Minguzzi prize for the best young Italian geochemist awarded by the Italian Society of Mineralogy and Petrology (SIMP).

AREAS OF RESEARCH
Integrating mineralogical, geochemical and isotopic analyses coupled with field work carried out in Europe, Africa, Australia and Antarctica for over 30 years, Luigi’s research interests have focused on:
1) The cosmochemistry of planetary materials (meteorites, micrometeorites and planetary samples recovered from space missions), to explore the origin and evolution of the Solar System, extend the inventory of the Solar System's composition, and estimate the flux of the extraterrestrial material to Earth.
2) The geology of impact craters and geochemistry of impactites, to contribute to the understanding of the impact cratering process in the Solar System and the collisional history of our planet.
3) The search for meteorites in hot and cold deserts.

RESEARCH PROJECTS
Currently PI of the "Cosmic Dust II: Cosmochemistry and Space Tweezers Technologies for Space Science and Exploration" project (PRIN2022 Program of the Italian MUR), national coordinator of the “Analyses of extraterrestrial materials” task within the SpaceItUp! Program (ASI-MUR funded, exPE15 PNRR), and member of the science committee for the realization of the Italian national Astromaterials Curation Facility.
Member of one of the 40 research groups worldwide working on samples from asteroid 162173 Ryugu, recently returned by the JAXA Hayabusa 2 space mission.

Previously PI of a number of national and international projects including:
"Antarctic Meteorites" for the search for meteorites in Antarctica funded by the Italian National Antarctic Research Programme (PNRA) in 2009, 2013 and 2016; the "Cosmic Dust” (PRIN2015 Program of the Italian MUR) 2015; the “Geology and geophysics of Kamil Crater, Egypt” project funded by MAECI under the programme Research Projects of Great Relevance MAECI-PGR in 2013 and 2014.

Previously partner coordinator of international projects fostering planetary science in Europe and Africa, including the EC funded H2020 "EURO-CARES - European Curation of Astromaterials Returned from Exploration of Space" and MCA-RTN FP6 ORIGINS as, and "Africa Initiative for Planetary and Space Sciences".

Leader of 10 Antarctic expeditions for the search for meteorites within PNRA and 4 in the Sahara for the search for meteorites and impact craters.

RESEARCH LABORATORIES
Manager of the (E)SEM-FEG and FIB-SEM-FEG electron microscopy analytical laboratories of the Centro per la Integrazione della Strumentazione dell’Università di Pisa (CISUP).
Manager of the “Microprep lab” at the Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Pisa.

SERVICES (International)
Barringer Medal Award committee, Meteoritical Society (2025 – 2028).
Nomenclature Committee and Associate Editor of the Meteoritical Bulletin, Meteoritical Society (2003 – 2008).
Councilor, Meteoritical Society (2009 – 2014).
Scientific Advisory Committee, Africa Initiative for Planetary Science, AFIPS, (2018 –).

BIBLIOMETRY
150 papers published (including 7 journal covers) in international scientific journals with IF and five book chapters. WOS H-index = 36.

SOCIETY
MetSoc, EAG, SIMP, SISP