The Sardinia Radio Telescope in San Basilio was today, November 2, 2022, the venue for a special event that made it a symbol of international scientific unity and cooperation. Today, at the Inaf radio telescope, the medal dedicated to the famous Russian-Ukrainian scientist who later became a naturalized American, George Gamow, was awarded to the Scientific Director of Inaf, Filippo Zerbi.
In the presence of Emilio Molinari, director of the Inaf-Cagliari Astronomical Observatory, the Ukrainian delegation – composed of astrophysicists Elena Bannikova, Oleg Ulyanov, and Volodymyr Akhmetov – presented Professor Zerbi with this prestigious award in the form of a medal accompanied by a diploma containing the reasons for the award:
“For many years of successful work in the field of astrophysics and related technology, for his personal contribution to the development of radio astronomy, for the education and training of scientific personnel and the dissemination of science, for his brilliant leadership within the National Institute of Astrophysics, and for his role in developing fruitful scientific cooperation between Italy and Ukraine, the Scientific Director of INAF Filippo Zerbi is awarded the George Gamow medal.”
The award ceremony, which was also attended remotely by astrophysicist Massimo Capaccioli, who, along with Zerbi, was a proponent of this valuable international collaboration, allowed the Ukrainian delegation to have a close-up visit to the radio telescope with operations manager Sergio Poppi, as well as to the facilities developed in the surrounding area, such as the SAAD (Sardinia Array Aperture Demonstrator) antenna network, explained by Matteo Murgia, Federica Govoni, and Andrea Melis, and the new educational antenna for radio astronomy illustrated by Silvia Casu.