Massimo Villata

Massimo Villata (Turin, 1954) is an Italian astrophysicist and science fiction writer.

Biography

From 1968 to 1973 he attends the Technical Institute for surveyors, he takes part in student movements and graduates with the highest marks; later, he enrolls at the University of Turin, graduating with honors in physics.

At the end of the PhD he wins a competition at the Observatory of Turin, located in Pino Torinese, where he still works as an astrophysicist.

Scientific activity

His main field of research is the study of extragalactic astronomy, ranging even in theoretical physics and cosmology.

He specializes in the study of blazars (extremely energetic and variable active galactic nuclei), and since the year 2000 he is the President of the International Consortium of optical and radio telescopes (WEBT - Whole Earth Blazar Telescope) devoted to this study.

Thanks to his innovative studies, also in the field of antimatter and its gravitational properties in connection with dark energy, he is author of over 300 publications, of which about half as first or second author, and appears on numerous online journals of scientific information such as Phys.org, Universe Today, Engadget, and many others.

Literary activity

He also carries out the activity of writer of science fiction novels (genre hard science fiction) under the pseudonym Max Wells, inspired by the famous Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell. His kind of fiction, also thanks to the studies and research undertaken, is the result of a merger between hard science fiction and scientific literature, a genre that he likes to call "scientific novel".

List of scientific publications

Science fiction novels

External links

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