On June 13th, 2022, Italy dedicated its first bronze statue that honors a female scientist, honoring the astronomer Margherita Hack, the first woman professor in astronomy in Italy. Margherita Hack (1922-2013) was born and raised in Florence. Even though her parents were members of the Italian Theosophical Society, she became an atheist. Since she was little, Hack was a vegetarian and competed in long and high jumps. In 1944, she married her childhood friend Aldo De Rosa. Based on her research in the Arcetri Observatory, mentored by Giorgio Abetti, she submitted her thesis in astrophysics and received her physics degree from the University of Florence in 1945. From 1964 to 1992, she was a full professor of astronomy at the University of Trieste, the first woman professor of astronomy in Italy. She became the Head of the Astronomical Observatory of Trieste (till 1987); she was the first woman in this position. She wrote papers, scientific books, and popular science books, was involved in the world astronomy community, developed astronomy growth in Italy, and promoted it in the media, frequently appearing on television, winning the nickname the Lady of the Stars and inspiring women to become scientists. Outside the scientific world, she was politically and socially active, campaigning for gay and abortion rights and against the Vatican City’s influence on Italian public life. To commemorate her 100th birthday, the Deloitte Foundation commissioned a statue in her honor. The jury chose the artist Daniela Olivieri (known as Sissi) to design and create it. The memorial, titled “Sguardo Fisico” (Physical Gaze), stands in a garden next to the entrance of the main campus of the University of Milan. The bronze statue depicts Hack as a strong, independent woman emerging from the galaxy spiral. She raises her hands in a typical gesture, looking at the stars and beyond them. It is the second statue dedicated to a woman in Milan. The first commemorates Cristina Trivulzio di Belgioijoso (1808-1871), an activist for Italy’s independence, writer, and philanthropist. Read more...