The IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature named a large crater on Mars after Professor Giovanni Picardi.

"A recognition of the contribution made by our lecturer to the study and knowledge of the Red Planet," said Rector Antonella Polimeni, "and of our researchers who work every day to make space less distant and less unknown".

Giovanni Picardi was a reference point for all the Italian Space Agency’s radars, starting with the X-SAR programme, developed in collaboration with the German Space Agency and present on three Space Shuttle flights. He also played a fundamental role in the radars used in several interplanetary missions, from Mars Express - for which he was scientific director of the MARSIS radar - to Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Cassini.

Picardi's internationally recognised scientific work, particularly at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has led to innovative system concepts capable of revealing the most hidden aspects of worlds such as Mars and Titan, as well as contributing to the advanced and innovative Italian COSMO-SkyMed system for Earth observation using radar techniques.

His contribution was also fundamental in the field of education and training. As the founder and first director of the Department of Information and Communication Science and Technology, later merged into the Department of Information Engineering, Electronics and Telecommunications, Picardi was the 'maestro' for at least three academic generations of students and researchers in the field of telecommunications, and the creator of a new interdisciplinary PhD in Remote Sensing.