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We were greatly saddened to learn of the sudden death of Nichi D'Amico
earlier this month. Nichi was an Italian astronomer who began his
career in the late 1970's searching for pulsar signals in gamma-ray
data from the COS-B satellite. In the early 1980's he first visited
Australia, working with Dick Manchester to search for radio pulsars
associated with gamma-ray sources. This work led to Nichi joining the
ATNF--Jodrell Bank collaborations on pulsar searches at Parkes,
culminating in the very successful Parkes Multibeam Pulsar Survey from
1996. The picture shows Nichi and Dick in the Parkes Control Room in
October, 1998, as the 1000th known pulsar was confirmed. From the
mid-2000's Nichi became the main driver for the development and
construction of the 64-m Sardinia Radio Telescope and, from 2015, led
the Italian Institute for Astrophysics, based in Rome. Nichi was a
good friend and colleague to many of us and he will be greatly missed.
(Image credit: John Sarkissian)
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