Federica Govoni is the New Director of INAF in Cagliari

Astrophysicist Federica Govoni has been appointed by the President of the National Institute of Astrophysics to the Directorate of the Astronomical Observatory of Cagliari (Inaf-Oac) from August 1, 2023, with a renewable three-year mandate. The appointment comes at a very important historical moment for INAF in Cagliari, where, after a long phase of technological renewal, the Sardinia Radio Telescope is preparing to become fully operational again to observe the sky with world-class instruments.

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Following the designation by the Board of Directors and the appointment by the President of the National Institute of Astrophysics, astrophysicist Federica Govoni has held the position of new Director of the Astronomical Observatory of Cagliari (Inaf-Oac) since August 1, 2023.

Federica Govoni conducts scientific research in the study of relativistic particles and magnetic fields present in large-scale structures of the Universe such as galaxies, galaxy clusters
and cosmological filaments. Since 2017, she has served as the head of the UTG-II National Enabling Division for Radio Astronomy, within the Scientific Directorate of INAF. In this role, she has been involved at both national and international levels in the scientific and technological coordination of the Institute’s radio astronomy. She was also the coordinator of the PON project, funded by the Ministry of University and Research with 18.7 million euros, aimed at enhancing the Sardinia Radio Telescope for the study of the Universe at high radio frequencies. Thanks to the four-year work on the PON project, the Sardinia Radio Telescope has been equipped with instrumentation that brings it to the peak of its observational capabilities, from 0.3 to 116 Gigahertz (in 2018 it could only observe up to 26 GHz).

“I have the privilege of being part of INAF – Astronomical Observatory of Cagliari since 2005,” Govoni states, “In all these years, I have come to appreciate the unity of the staff, the friendliness of the work environment, and the growth potential of the Observatory. We are indeed a structure composed of young and motivated personnel with a wide variety of scientific and technological interests.
We also have the honor of managing the Sardinia Radio Telescope, one of the most innovative and high-performing radio telescopes in Europe and, due to the latest technological updates, in the world.”

Federica Govoni succeeds Emilio Molinari, Director of Inaf-Oac from 2017 to 2023. During an informal handover ceremony held on July 27 at the observatory, the outgoing Director symbolically handed over the keys of the Observatory (specially made for the occasion by the technological laboratories) to the incoming one with a mutual exchange of greetings and best wishes.

“Directing an observatory like the one in Cagliari,” continues Govoni, “is both complex and stimulating, so I thank Emilio Molinari for having worked until the last day of his mandate to leave a stable and orderly situation on which to build the scientific future of the structure with relative tranquility.”

“These have been years of very intense work,” declares the outgoing Director Molinari, “and of technological transition for our observatory and for the Sardinia Radio Telescope, for which – thanks to the work of Federica Govoni and an extraordinary team of over sixty people from various INAF locations – truly spectacular changes and improvements have been made at the level of receivers and new observational frequencies. In these years, we certainly would have liked to observe the sky a bit more (which is why I came here, on the front line with a telescope!), but we know we have done a great job of preparation for a technological leap of the antenna that we have been waiting for a long time. Now it will be up to the new management, to whom I extend my sincerest best wishes, to take care of the restart of this great instrument.”

The observatory staff, largely present at the handover meeting, thus had the opportunity to thank, on one hand, Emilio Molinari for the great and constant work done in the six years he spent in Sardinia, wishing him to continue for many more years a brilliant research career on his most loved topics, and on the other hand, to joyfully welcome the arrival of Federica Govoni in what is the first female leadership of the Astronomical Observatory of Cagliari.

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