Advisors
Dr. Marco Ferrazzani
ESA - European Space Agency
He is the ESA Legal Counsel and Head of the Legal Services Department at the European Space Agency at ESA Headquarters, in Paris, France.
provides a full spectrum of legal advice and guidance on the legal and programmatic aspects of ESA programmes and policies.
is the legal advisor to the ESA Director General and to the ESA Council for all institutional and legal matters, including the interpretation of the ESA Convention and all relevant legal instruments.
provides legal counseling to the Agency’s organs and Member States on all legal matters, including defending the rights of the Agency, preparing draft Agreements and conducting international negotiations, identifying the Agency’s legal liabilities and devising legal solutions to mitigate them, and preparing Resolutions, Declarations, and other legal instruments for the execution of the Agency’s programmes.
He specializes in International law, International organizations, Space programmes and European affairs.
Prof. Amalia Ercoli-Finzi
Aerospace Department of the Politecnico di Milano
She has held leading positions in several ASI and ESA boards and committees, including the Mars Exploration Task Force (NASA-ASI), the Human Spaceflight Vision Group (ESA) and the Exploration Advisory Committee (ESA). She has also participated in a large number of international meetings dealing with space exploration, providing valuable input.
Finzi has been Director of the Aerospace Department of the Politecnico of Milano, member of the Scientific Committee of the Italian Space Agency, President of AIDDA (the Italian Association of Aeronautics and Astronautics), and President of the Association of Engineers of the Provincia di Milano. She is also member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), the American Astronautical Society (AAS) and the British Interplanetary Society (BIS).She has been involved in several past missions of ASI and of ESA. Recently she became the Principal Investigator of the SD2 instrument of the Rosetta spacecraft designed to perforate the Martian soil and collect samples.
Dr. Marc Heppener
ESA - European Space Agency
Dr. Marc Heppener is member of the Cabinet of the Director General of ESA. He is the coordinator of the High-level Science Policy Advisory Committee, the highest-level science advisory committee of ESA.
Marc has been active in space research for more than 25 years, holding positions in the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (first as project leader X-ray detector development, then from 1989-1999 as project manager external research) before joining ESA in 1999 as Head of Science and Applications in the Directorate of Human Spaceflight. In this position he was also ESA Mission Scientist for the International Space Station. From 2009-2012 he was seconded to the European Science Foundation as Director of Science and Strategy Development until he returned to ESA to take up his current position.
Marc has been active in different organisations, notably the International Astronautical Federation, where he was vice-president from 2008-2012, the Netherlands Society for Aerospace, which he presided from 2005-2011, and Women in Aerospace, where he is auditor.
Piero Messina
ESA - European Space Agency
International professional in the field of R&D Management, International cooperation, institutional & public affairs at European Space Agency Headquarters HQ in Paris, France.
He has been Director General's Cabinet, Member States Relations & Coordination Office of the European Space Agency Headquarters in Paris,
Head of the Coordination Office and Advisor to the Director, Directorate of Human Spaceflight of the European Space Agency HQ and ESTEC, Paris and Noordwijk
Responsible for Higher Education programmes of the Education Office at ESA
European Space Agency HQ and ESTEC, Paris and Noordwijk
Administrator in the Director's Office of Industrial Matters and Technology Programmes at the ESA's HQ, Paris
Budget and Finance Office at the European Space Agency ESOC in Darmstadt, Germany
Head of the Reinsurance Office at GEAS Assicurazioni (Gruppo Fondiaria)