Scuola Normale Superiore Nice Observatory Paolo Farinella (13 January 1953 – 25 March 2000) was an Italian scientist very active in the field of planetary science and in particular in the study of asteroids and small bodies of the Solar System.

After that he became a graduate student of Giuseppe (Bepi) Colombo and worked as a research astronomer at the Observatory of Brera.

From 1982 to 1998, he was a university researcher in Pisa, at the Department of Mathematics and at the Scuola Normale Superiore, teaching Physics and Celestial Mechanics.

His work as planetary scientist changed the view of the solar system revolutionizing the way orbital and collisional histories of asteroids are seen.

He was very active into the astronomy popularization, writing dozens of articles that were mainly published by the Italian astronomical magazine “L'Astronomia”.