Francesco Soldovieri

The 2025 Christiaan Huygens Medal is awarded to Francesco Soldovieri for outstanding achievements in the field of electromagnetic modelling for radar imaging and its application to geosciences.

Francesco Soldovieri has introduced ground-breaking methodologies for solving linear and non-linear inverse electromagnetic scattering problems, particularly in the context of non-invasive surveys using radar systems. His research activity has deeply innovated the radar imaging from various observation platforms and in unconventional scenarios, and has also significantly advanced the theory of inverse electromagnetic scattering.

His outstanding contributions have impacted a broad variety of applications, such as non-destructive surveys of soil and civil engineering structures, cultural heritage, environmental monitoring, security, planetary exploration. Among Soldovieri's main scientific contributions, we must mention: the first images of the subsoil of the Moon’s dark side thanks to the Lunar Penetrating Radar of the Chang’e 4 mission; the first airborne application of the microwave radar tomography for monitoring glaciers and desert environments; the mapping of a doric temple in the archaeologic area of Paestum. His innovative approaches have been applied also to satellite synthetic aperture radar systems and X-band radar systems for sea state monitoring.

He has been a key figure in the exploration of the Martian subsurface using low-frequency radar, contributing to the discovery of liquid water on Mars in 2018. The excellence of his scientific research is evidenced by an impressive number of papers published in top-leading journals with more than 11,120 citations and an H-index of 51.

Francesco Soldovieri's leadership is not confined to his research. It has played pivotal roles in many international projects funded by European Union, and scientific organisations (EGU, IEEE). He currently serves as the Director of the Institute for Electromagnetic Sensing of the Environment at the Italian National Research Council.

Finally, his mentoring of the next generation of scientists is reflected in his supervision of graduate and doctoral students, who achieved successful careers in academia and industry.