Awards

Golden Florin Award

The Golden Florin AWARD is sponsored by the Center for Microwave Remote Sensing (Ce.Te.M.) jointly with the IEEE GRSS. The Golden Florin (Fiorino d’Oro) Award is presented every second year to individuals, who, throughout their career, made outstanding contributions to research in Passive Microwave Remote Sensing. The Award consists of an exact gold reproduction of the old golden florin, the coin first minted in Italy by the Florentine Republic in 1252, and a certificate. The award was established in 1995 by the Center for Microwave Remote Sensing (Ce.Te.M.).
Presentation of the 2026 Golden Florin Award was given during the opening session on Monday April 27th. Exceptionally two awards were presented:

- Prof. Joel Johnson (The Ohio State University, USA) for his contribution to theory, instruments, applications of microwave remote sensing and opening the way to low-frequency ultrawideband microwave radiometry; 

- in memory of Prof. Frank Marzano (Sapienza Rome University, Italy) for his contributions to microwave remote sensing in meteorology and volcanology and for his engaging and enthusiastic role in leading the Center of Excellence for Telesensing of Environment and Model Prediction of Severe Events (CETEMPS).

Marzano Award "Gutta Aurea"

The Marzano Award "Gutta Aurea" (i.e. latin for the "Golden Drop”) is co-organized by "Associazione Prof. Frank Silvio Marzano – Per Aspera Ad Astra" and the Center of Excellence for Telesensing of Environment and Model Predictions of Severe events (CETEMPS) of University of L’Aquila. It is named after the late Prof. Frank Marzano, aiming to recognize the contributions of mid-career researchers in the field of remote sensing applied to atmospheric sciences, meteorology, and telecommunications.
Presentation of the 2025 Marzano Award "Gutta Aurea" was given during the closing session on Thursday April 30th, to:

- Dr. Lisa Milani (NASA & University of Maryland-College Park, USA) for "significant contributions towards improved estimates of snowfall from satellite-based passive and active microwave observations".

Best oral/poster presentations

Oral and poster presentations at MicroRad 2026 will be evaluated by members of the MicroRad 2026 Permanent Steering Committee. One presentation in each category will be selected as the best and will receive a certificate and a symbolic prize. These awards are dedicated to the memory of Walter Di Nicolantonio, Remote Sensing Expert and Data Processing Engineer in OHB Italia, he was part of the development team of the Microwave Imager (MWI) on the MetOp Second Generation mission and CIMR mission, on the Copernicus expansion programme.
The awards for the best oral and poster presentations at MicroRad 2026 were presented during the closing session on Thursday, April 30, to:

- Dr. Lennox Apudo (University at Albany USA) for the poster presentation: "Updates and Improvements on Accuracy to Calibrate Cubesat Radiometer Constellations";

- Dr. Antonia Gambacorta (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA) for the oral presentation: "The Advanced Ultra-high Resolution Optical and Radiofrequency (AURORA) Pathfinder".