Dr. Lorenzo Amati

Lorenzo Amati graduated in Astronomy at the University of Bologna in 1991 and received his Ph.D. degree in Astronomy from the University “La Sapienza” of Rome in 1999. Since 1998, he has been a research staff member at the Institute of Space Astrophysics and Cosmic Physics (IASF) in Bologna, which is part of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF). He is also an Adjunct Professor of the Faculty of the International Center for Relativistic Astrophysics Network (ICRANet). His field of research is high-energy astrophysics, with particular emphasis on Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) studies. In this respect, his research highlights include the discovery (in 2000) of a transient X-ray absorption edge in the first 13 s of GRB 990705, leading to the first estimate for a GRB redshift based on X-ray data, and the discovery of a strong correlation between the photon energy at which GRB spectra peak and their radiated energy (known as “Amati relation”), which has relevant implications for the physics and possible cosmological use of these phenomena. He is also involved in the study (science case and instrument concept) of future missions for GRB studies and dedicates a minor part of his research work to the study of X-ray binaries.