Classe
1984, è uno speleologo e geologo italiano, vicepresidente dell’Associazione di
Esplorazioni Geografiche La Venta. In quasi trenta spedizioni, ha esplorato
grotte e canyon dal Sud America all’Asia Centrale, guidando team
multidisciplinari di ricercatori in alcuni dei più remoti angoli del pianeta.
Premiato dal Rolex Award for Enterprise per la scoperta di grotte antichissime
nelle montagne tabulari del venezuela, Francesco si dedica anche all’esplorazione
e allo studio di sistemi carsici italiani, dai Monti Lessini alle Dolomiti ed è
Professore a contratto per il corso di Geologia Planetaria presso l’Università
di Bologna e consulente dell’Agenzia Spaziale Europea per l’addestramento di
astronauti per future missioni di esplorazione planetaria. Nel 2016 la rivista
americana Times lo ha nominato tra i 20 giovani emergenti più influenti del
pianeta.
Francesco Sauro is an Italian explorer and
speleologist, recognized by Time Magazine as one of the ten millennial that are
having an impact in the future of science and planetary exploration.
He is contracted Professor of Planetary Geology at the University of
Bologna, with a peculiar interest in caves and subsurface exploration. With
over twenty year of caving activity, Sauro has explored tens of kilometers of
caves in any different lithology on Earth, including ice. He has lead over
thirty expeditions in several countries among which: Greenland, Mexico,
Venezuela, Brazil, Philippines, India, Uzbekistan, France, Spain, Poland,
Greece. In these explorations he has performed more than 70 km of new cave
surveys and has descended some of the most challenging abysses on Earth.
About thirty papers about his researches and
explorations have been published in peer reviewed scientific magazines and in
proceedings of national and international congresses. In 2014 he won the Rolex Award for Enterprise
with an exploration project in the Guyana highlands of South America.
Since 2015 he has been selected as technical
director of the course CAVES and PANGAEA organized by the European Space Agency
for training astronauts for operational and human behavior purposes in
difficult environments. He has been leading exploration trainings for
astronauts from ESA, NASA, JAXA, RUSCOSMOS and CSA.