On the night of August 16th Prof. Giovanni Picardi passed suddenly away. Born in 1936, Prof. Picardi has been during all his long career a brilliant and innovative radar scientist and an admired teacher at the University of Rome Sapienza.  Among the many radar projects he carried on, he has provided fundamental contributions to all the radars presently operating around other bodies of the Solar System and planetary radar sounding would not have developed into the field of study we see today without his ingenuity and work. What he has done and what he has given to radar science will remain for the present and future students and scientists and the seeds of his activity will remain  and grow in the Italian and International community.

Enrico Flamini