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Violette Impellizzeri

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Violette Impellizzeri
Violette Impellizzeri (right) receiving an award from the Chilean Senate
Born15 August 1977
Palermo, Italy
NationalityItalian
Alma materUniversity of Bristol
Max Planck Institute für Radioastronomie
Occupation(s)Astronomer, astrophysicist and university lecturer

Violette Impellizzeri (born August 15, 1977), is an Italian astronomer and astrophysicist specializing in active galactic nuclei (AGN) and molecular clouds surrounding supermassive black holes. She is currently a university professor at Leiden University, where she conducts research on these objects using radio interferometry.[1]

Biography

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Violette Impellizzeri was born in Saronno, a comune in Lombardy, in the Province of Varese, Italy. She completed her primary and secondary education in Alcamo, Sicily, before relocating with her family to Karlsruhe, Germany. Her father was employed as a teacher in Karlsruhe, Germany.[1]

Impellizzeri earned her European Baccalaureate at the European School of Karlsruhe. In 1995, she enrolled at the University of Bristol, where she obtained a master's degree in physics. She later pursued a doctorate in astrophysics at the Max Planck Institute für Radioastronomy in Bonn, Germany.

Following her doctoral studies, Impellizzeri undertook postdoctoral research at the University of Virginia.[2] She also worked at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) for three years, focusing on physical cosmology and megamasers as part of the Megamaser Cosmology Project (MCP).[3]

Since 2011, she has worked at ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array) in Chile as an astronomer. In October 2020, she moved back to Europe to work as a program manager with Allegro (ALMA Local Expertise Group) and the European ALMA Regional Center (ARC) node in the Netherlands, hosted by Leiden Observatory. She currently teaches at the Leiden University.[4]

Activity

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Violette Impellizzeri focused on Active Galactic Nuclei during her doctoral studies at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany. As part of her research, she conducted a series of observations using the Eff Elsberg 100-m Radio Telescope to detect water masers (Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) in distant galaxies. Her efforts led to their discovery, which was later confirmed by observations made with the Very Large Array Radio Telescope in New Mexico, operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO).

In 2007, Impellizzeri was recruited by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) to contribute to the Mega Maser Cosmology Project (MCP) at the University of Virginia. She coordinated research efforts at the Green Bank Telescope in Virginia, integrating these with observations made using the Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) system. Impellizzeri worked on the project for three years and continued to collaborate on it for the following ten years.[5]

Impellizzeri joined the Atacama Cosmology Telescope project, which is the largest radio telescope in the world and operates at an altitude of 5 km, as an NRAO astronomer. She was tasked with the integration of the VLBI observations within the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) under the title of friend of VLBI.[6] She participated in data integration with other remote telescopes, where a distance of 10,000 kilometers can be leveraged as if the observations were made by one giant telescope[7] with a 10,000 km diameter.

Honors

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  • Earned the title of "Woman of Stars" and published a paper in Nature on the discovery of the most ancient water in the universe;
  • 11 August 2018: Awarded the Tablet Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary Clubs for her contributions to the diffusion of Italian culture;
  • 18 April 2019: the Chilean government awarded the astronomer with a medal, as official recognition for the work done in the exploration of the black hole.
  • 12 August 2019: Received a Tablet from the Mayor of Alcamo in recognition of her work in scientific research.
  • 2020: Together with the other astrophysicists who realized the photo of the black hole, Impellizzeri was awarded the Breakthrough Prize (2020).[8]
  • 11 August 2021: Yearly Prize by the Kiwanis Club of Alcamo, with the following motivation: To Violette Impellizzeri, astronomer with an international fame, for her dedication for the study of the mysteries of universe and for the safeguard of environment.
  • 28 November 2022: KHMW Outreach Award for her project ALMA for Leiden.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "STRW local: Pers". local.strw.leidenuniv.nl. Retrieved 12 October 2024.
  2. ^ "Astrofisica? Può essere semplice. Violette Impellizzeri lo sa". 16 October 2016.
  3. ^ "Violette Impellizzeri to head astronomy and operations department". ASTRON. 31 May 2024. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  4. ^ "Violette Impellizzeri". universiteitleiden.nl/.
  5. ^ "International Astronomical Union - IAU". iau.org. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  6. ^ "La foto del secolo? Perché non mi emoziona l'immagine del Buco nero M87". 11 April 2019.
  7. ^ "Black Hole Imaged for First Time by Event Horizon Telescope". 15 April 2017.
  8. ^ "Breakthrough Prize – Winners of the 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics and Mathematics Announced".

Sources

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