Luigi Piro is director of research at IAPS, INAF in Rome, member of the Athena Science Study Team (ASST) and X-IFU Co-PI. After his graduation at University of Rome, he moved to IASF in Bologna, as research staff, working on EXOSAT data of AGNs and the development of BeppoSAX instrumentation. He then moved to Japan as visiting scientist in RIKEN, co-leading the discovery paper on the disk reflection features in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) with GINGA. Back in Rome, as ASI project scientist of BeppoSAX he directed the scientific activities of the mission, in particular those on Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), for which he was awarded the Rossi and the Descartes Prize. He currently leads the development of Transition Edge Superconductors (TES) for X-ray Astrophysics and the Athena Consortium in Italy and he is the coordinator of the AHEAD H2020 EU infrastructure project for High Energy Astrophysics. His present main science topics are GRB as probes of the high redshift Universe and its large scale structures.
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Image: Artistic picture shows the jet piercing through the surface with an associated hot cocoon, both components producing X-ray emission. The figure shows Ultralong GRB light curves as opposed to normal GRB population in gray.