It is with deep sorrow that AIA announces the death of Prof. Luciano Rocco, its honorary and acoustic partner of great scientific depth.
The partner Gianfranco Cellai, a pupil of prof. Rocco, sent us a moving memory, which we gladly publish.
Born in Florence in 1927, he graduated in 1950 in Naval and Mechanical Engineering.
He began his scientific and academic career in 1961, as Assistant to the illustrious astronomer Prof. Guglielmo Righini in the teaching of Technical Physics at the Faculty of Architecture, teaching continuously until his retirement in 1999, but as a passionate teacher he taught Acoustics at the Audiology Center of the University of Florence until 2003.
He carried out his long activity, also as a freelancer, in various sectors such as plant engineering, energy and lighting, however he gave his greatest scientific contribution in various fields of acoustics, such as the study of the effects of noise disturbance. , the measurement and simulation of the effects of traffic vibrations on buildings, architectural acoustics, as well as in the study of problems relating to aeronautical noise of which he was a true pioneer. Acoustics was the discipline to which he has always dedicated a passionate commitment as a professor and scientific researcher.
Author and co-author of over 150 scientific publications, he has published widely disseminated university texts including “Fundamentals of Environmental Acoustics”, Fundamentals of Air Conditioning Systems “and” Lighting “on which generations of architects have trained.
He was part of some of the most prestigious Italian scientific and cultural associations including the Italian Association of Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration-AICARR, of the Italian Association of Lighting-A.I.D.I. and Honorary Member of the Italian Acoustics Association-A.I.A, of which he can be considered one of the founding fathers. In his long career he has held numerous positions, some prestigious such as:
– Vice President of the Acoustics Commission of the U.N.I Italian National Unification Body,
– Italian delegate at the European Committee for Standardization CEN / TC126 Acoustics for Buildings,
– Italian delegate at the ISO International Standard Organization in the ISO / TC43 / SC1 / WG43 working group set up for the drafting of the new “Procedure for Describing and Managing Aircraft Noise Heard on the Ground” legislation.
Almost uninterruptedly he participated in all the AIA conferences, as long as his health conditions allowed him.
For those who have not known him, we remember his participation in the AIA Conference in 2014 in Pisa, in which, without projecting any image as is now the custom of everyone, he opened his speech with a phrase that sounded like this “at an acoustics conference you need to know hear more than see ”and at the end there was a great and sincere applause.
For those who have known him publicly but not privately, we remind you that in his study he was an engineer, and only in the university environment Professor: the figures of freelance professional and lecturer he believed should remain distinct for correctness and transparency.
To remember Rocco (Lucio for friends) on the human level it is therefore almost inevitable to fall into rhetoric, which he abhorred so much as to categorically deny us to publicly celebrate his retirement, and therefore in order not to make him displeased we conclude in the certainty that, for those who had the privilege of knowing him, the memory of a gentleman and above all of a teacher of life will remain indelible.