Maria Cristina De Sanctis is a Planetary Scientist working in the field of planetary surface and small bodies of the solar system. She received a degree in Physic and a Ph.D. in Astronomy. She is expert in instrumentation for planetary missions, spectral data processing and thermal-evolution of planetary bodies. She is involved in a large number of space experiments and is the Scientific Director of the Small Bodies Node of Europlanet. The asteroid (17899) Mariacristina is named in her honor.