Amalia Ercoli Finzi, born in 1937, has given so much to science and space technology. She was the first woman to graduate in Aeronautical Engineering in Italy; professor emerita and former head of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano, where she was the first woman in 139 years of history to inaugurate the academic year; director of the Rosetta mission that, in 2014, brought a drill designed by her to a comet 500 million kilometers from Earth; and, since her retirement, a consultant for NASA and the European Space Agency.

To honor the contribution of Amalia Ercoli Finzi to science, and to celebrate a career as brilliant as difficult for a woman of her time, ESA has decided to name one of the two European Rovers that are part of ExoMars 2022 after her. ExoMars 2022 is the mission that ESA and the Russian space agency Roscomos are developing to search for traces of life on Mars, and whose departure is scheduled for September. The mission is Italian-led.

The Rover Amalia will remain on the ground during the mission, to allow technicians to test the operations carried out on the red planet by the other "twin" rover, named after Rosalind Franklin, English chemist who first photographed the double helix structure of DNA.

Both Rovers are currently at the Thales Alenia Space facility in Turin, Italy, where they were built, waiting for their mission to begin. Rosalind in April will be "transported" to Baikonur, Kazakhstan, from where it will be launched into space.

"This is wonderful news, which honors me and which I hope will encourage young female scientists," said Dr. Amalia Ercoli Finzi, who has always been committed to promoting greater female empowerment and bringing young women closer to the world of science. "It's really very nice that the two Rovers have been named after two women. I will stay on Earth to help the one who will be on Mars, a woman who was a victim of her colleagues and who did not get the recognition she deserved."