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 Belgioioso (1808-1871), an activist for Italy’s independence, writer, and philanthropist.
Science says 'ciao' to Italy's Margherita Hack: the 'lady of the stars' - science
Science says 'ciao' to Italy's Margherita Hack: the 'lady of the stars'
Italy' s Margherita Hack was not only a highly-respected astrophysicist but a popular science writer, public intellectual and civil rights activist.
She died at the weekend at the age of 91.
Known as the 'lady of the stars', her research contributed to the spectral classification of many stars and the asteroid 8558 Hack is named after her.
She led the observatory at Trieste from 1964 to 1987 - the first woman to hold the position.
One of her many gifts was the ability to explain the most complicated of concepts in such a way that most people could understand them.
She said: "I'm an atheist in the sense that I do not believe in God, I do not believe in the afterlife. I believe that the soul is our brain. It's impossible to scientifically prove either that God exists, or that God does not exist. The idea of God does not convince me. I prefer to believe that there is matter and that matter has the properties we observe."
When euronews' Claudio Rocco spoke to her two years ago, he asked if she could define time.
She replied: "I think you can understand time just by the fact that everything, everything changes. Everything ages. You're born, you die. The living beings as the objects if they are new, then they become old. Even the stones, even in our Earth, aged four and a half billion years, has changed enormously. So we can define time only thanks to the fact that everything changes. "
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Science says 'ciao' to Italy's Margherita Hack: the 'lady of the stars' - science
Science says 'ciao' to Italy's Margherita Hack: the 'lady of the stars'Italy' s Margherita Hack was not only a highly-respected astrophysicist but a popular science writer, public intellectual and civil rights activist.
She died at the weekend at the age of 91.
Known as the 'lady of the stars', her research contributed to the spectral classification of many stars and the asteroid 8558 Hack is named after her.
She led the observatory at Trieste from 1964 to 1987 - the first woman to hold the position.
One of her many gifts was the ability to explain the most complicated of concepts in such a way that most people could understand them.
She said: "I'm an atheist in the sense that I do not believe in God, I do not believe in the afterlife. I believe that the soul is our brain. It's impossible to scientifically prove either that God exists, or that God does not exist. The idea of God does not convince me. I prefer to believe that there is matter and that matter has the properties we observe."
When euronews' Claudio Rocco spoke to her two years ago, he asked if she could define time.
She replied: "I think you can understand time just by the fact that everything, everything changes. Everything ages. You're born, you die. The living beings as the objects if they are new, then they become old. Even the stones, even in our Earth, aged four and a half billion years, has changed enormously. So we can define time only thanks to the fact that everything changes. "
Made by euronews, the most watched news channel in Europe, euronews knowledge gives YouTubers amazing access into the scientists labs and research fields, including space rocket launch pads!
Subscribe to euronews knowledge and receive, twice a week, a shot of space videos on Mondays and sci-tech videos on Wednesdays: http://eurone.ws/Y9QTy3
