Municipality of Pisa and EGO: ‘Beyond the limit’, an event for schools dedicated to women in science

The Municipality of Pisa in collaboration with the European Gravitational Observatory and Virgo celebrates on February 11th the International Day of Women and Girls in STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) with an event dedicated to schools. The meeting, titled “Beyond the limit. Explorers of the planet and the Cosmos tell their stories‘, will be held at 10.30 a.m. at the Museo della Grafica in Palazzo Lanfranchi and is also open to the public.

‘The event,’ explains equal opportunities councillor Gabriella Porcaro, ‘is an opportunity to reflect on the progress made, but also on the challenges still to be faced to ensure equal opportunities for all women in the world of science. In particular, this year we are proud to present this initiative celebrating the fundamental contribution of women in scientific fields, with a focus on two extraordinary fields: volcanology and astrophysics. We want to give visibility to role models for young girls and raise awareness of the importance of greater inclusion of women in STEM disciplines. The speakers, in fact, are true pioneers in their fields, all women who have overcome all barriers with passion and expertise, and will show us that there are no limits when it comes to discovering, innovating and changing the world through research’.

“The science of the future needs the minds and perspectives of everyone, without exclusions. – said Massimo Carpinelli, director of EGO – It is therefore very important that the female scientists of tomorrow have models to draw inspiration from today, starting with their school experiences. We are therefore proud to have participated in the organisation of this event together with the Municipality of Pisa, to celebrate the International Day of Girls and Women in Science and to renew our year-round commitment, also in the laboratories and where scientific research is conducted’.

The speakers of the event are scientists Julia Casanueva, researcher at Virgo and the European Gravitational Observatory, Pia Astone, researcher at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics, Claudia D’Oriano, researcher and volcanologist at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology. The meeting will be moderated by journalist Francesca Franceschi.

The event is one of the activities organized within the context of the EU funded project PhysICs fOr all – PICO (GA n. 101162413). 

Pia Astone: researcher in experimental physics at the INFN Rome Unit. She works in the field of gravitational waves (GW). She started working on data at Explorer (CERN) and Nautilus (LNF). She was particularly involved in the analysis of gravitational wave data revealed by the LIGO and Virgo interferometers. She was among the researchers on the ‘paper writing team’ responsible for writing the first scientific paper, which – in February 2016 – announced the discovery of gravitational waves. She currently leads the Virgo group at the Sapienza University of Rome and has always also been intensively involved in dissemination and communication to the general public.

Julia Casanueva:studied Physics at the ‘Universidad de Cantabria’, Spain, and then moved to Paris for her Master’s degree. There, she began her PhD at the ‘Laboratoire de l’Accelerateur Lineaire’ in the commissioning of the Advanced Virgo gravitational wave detector, which she completed in 2017. Since then, she has been working at the European Gravitational Observatory, focusing on the design and implementation of the various upgrades needed to improve the detector’s sensitivity.

Claudia D’Oriano: She was born in 1978 in Pozzuoli, in the Campi Flegrei. At the age of 11, she moved to Pisa with her family. Here she did her studies, graduating in Geological Sciences with a thesis on the last eruption of the Campi Flegrei (1538). She became a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Pisa section in 2018. She deals with the study of products generated by explosive eruptions. Her studies always start from ground surveys, where she collects rock samples that she takes to her laboratory and analyses using analytical systems that are also very sophisticated. From the shape of the crystals and pores inside the pyroclasts, and from the chemical composition of the volcanic glass, it is possible to understand the processes that triggered the eruption and to reconstruct the eruptive dynamics.