Filippo Frontera is an Italian astrophysicist and former full professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Ferrara. His research involves X-ray and γ-ray astronomy. Among the most relevant activities, PI of the high energy instrument Phoswich Detection System (PDS)  and of the Gamma Ray Burst Monitor, both  aboard the BeppoSAX satellites. For the discovery of the X-ray afterglow emission from Gamma Ray Bursts with BeppoSAX, with the consequent discovery of the extragalactic origin of these events, he was awarded the Bruno Rossi, Descartes, Enrico Fermi and Marcel Grossmann prizes. For his outstanding contribution to the Chinese HXMT (Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope) satellite, now in orbit, has recently received the “HXMT International Collaboration Award”. An asteroid of the main belt has taken the name (126177) Filippofrontera.