L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2016 www.italoamericano.org 3 NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS tific institutions to achieve what "Einstein doubted we would ever be able to measure," writes Prof. Laura Cadonati during our email interview. There is no doubt that the gravitational waves detection's date will be studied at school. But what does it mean for scien- tists to have discovered gravita- tional waves? "Let's s ay that up to this moment, we looked at the uni- verse through X-rays and now we have access to ultrasounds," s ays F ulvio Ricci, IN F N researcher coordinating the inter- national collaboration Virgo, during the Italian press confer- ence. Two of the scientists, part of team LIGO, that already started exploring the new reality, are my interview ees P rof. Laura Cadonati, data analyst, and Lisa Barsotti, hardware expert. What does it mean for you to be an Italian in the leader- ship of the international, based in the U.S, project LIGO? Lau ra C ad on ati: It is a true honor to be leading the LIGO data analysis team in mak- ing a discovery that can be com- pared to Galileo pointing the telescope to the sky for the first time. As an Italian I am proud of the heritage of G alileo and Leonardo and I draw from that the energy, creativity, determina- tion and collegiality which are necessary ingredients in a large collaboration. And I am not the only one: there are many Italian scientists working with me in LIGO and Virgo. How d oes it feel to b e a Continued from page 2 woman in physics in a large collaboration like LIGO? Lis a Bars otti: The LIG O Scientific Collaboration includes many institutions from all over the world that came together to analyze and interpret the data produced by the LIGO detectors. The LIG O S cientific Collaboration is particularly lucky to have brilliant women scientists in leading roles such as Prof. Gabriela Gonzalez, Prof. N ergis M avalvala and P rof. Laura Cadonati, who I had the pleas ure of w orking w ith as coordinator for the LIG O Scientific Collaboration of the O bs erving Run. G onzalez, Mavalvala, Cadonati and other women leaders, within the LIGO S cientific Collaboration are ins piring to me. In 15 years working as a physicist, both in Italy and in USA, and collaborat- ing with international people, I have never felt discriminated against because of my gender. Unfortunately, not all of my female colleagues in physics can say the same. Still, my own per- sonal experience tells me that there is hope for making science open and accessible to everyone, and we should all work together to make that possible. How do you feel about being part of a Nobel-Prize-quality d is covery as a w oman in physics? Lau ra C ad on ati: We all hope the Nobel Prize will be aw arded for gravitational waves to recognize the vision and passion of LIGO's founding fathers (Rai Weiss, Ron Drever, Kip Thorne) and maybe also to the Collaboration - as our spokesperson Gabriela Gonzalez says, "it takes a village, an inter- national village". It is the dream of every physicist to be part of a discovery of this magnitude, so I am absolutely elated. As a woman it is especially important for me to have a role in this discovery and to be a model for the next generations of female scientists, together with a group of amazing women, several of them Italians, who have fought bias, discrimination, and even harassment, and proven them- selves to be great scientists. The culture of scientific research still has a long way to go before women are treated equitably, but it is slowly getting better and I'm proud that we're a part of that process. What has been your take- away from working at this pro- ject? Lisa Barsotti: Measuring gravitational waves is extremely difficult; we have to measure changes in length of the order of one thousandth the radius of a proton over 4 km. Consequently, the LIGO detectors are extreme- ly complicated instruments that require world class scientists to make them work, with expertise in many areas of physics and engineering. It is a real honor to be part of it. And it is extremely r e w a r d i n g t o s e e a l l o f t h e excitement for this first direct detection of gravitational waves to realize that this is indeed con- sidered one of the greatest con- tributions to science in recent history. As a member of the LIGO- MIT group, one of the best parts is to see Prof. Rainer Weiss get- t i n g t h e r e c o g n i t i o n t h a t h e deserves for this achievement. Back in the 60's Weiss under- stood that measuring gravita- tional waves was possible and he worked on it for nearly half a century to make that happen. D o y o u t h i n k y o u w o u l d have been able to achieve the same results in Italy? Please explain why. Laura Cadonati: I have suc- cessful colleagues in Italy, in the Virgo project for instance. They are excellent scientists and men- tors. But they face additional c h a l l e n g e s d u e t o h o w I t a l y organizes and funds post-doctor- al research: once their students graduate, they cannot support t h e m f o r l o n g - t e r m r e s e a r c h positions, so they need to start anew every couple of years. This makes it difficult to progress and remain competitive with col- l e a g u e s a b r o a d , w h o have more stable research teams. How do you feel about the fact that most brilliant Italian minds leave their origins? And what do you think could be done to contain this loss? Lisa Barsotti: The (public!!) education that Italy offers is top class. It is not surprising that many Italians find opportunities and recognition abroad after com- pleting their studies. The surpris- ing part is that leaving Italy is for way too many people the only option. Providing an environment that guarantees stable access to funds and is strictly based on meritocracy are, in my opinion, the two key factors to prevent brain drain. As well as allowing the brilliant minds, who stay in Italy, to have a successful and ful- filling career. Laura Cadonati: I think bet- ter job security and opportunities for young Italian scientists to do research, without being financial- ly supported by their families or independent means, would go a long way towards retaining Italy's intellectual power. In America I have found that with determination and passion in my job I could have a rewarding career and a family, while most of my peers who remained in Italy had to quit scientific research. What brought you to leave Italy? And do you ever consider going back? Lisa Barsotti: I left Italy shortly after my PhD graduation. The idea of joining the LIGO group at MIT, home of some of the world experts on gravitational wave detectors, was thrilling. At the beginning I thought I would stay in Unites States for just a couple of years, learn as much as I could (including English!), and then go back to Italy. But then I got offered a very good position, as a scientist at MIT, while coming back to Italy never became a real option. I still think that at some point I will go back, my family and close friends are there. But again, how and when it is hard to say at this point. What's next? Laura Cadonati: After the celebrations of last week, we are returning to an overflowing desk at work. We have much to do: in the coming months we will be busy completing the analysis of our first observing run as the detectors undergo improvements in preparation for the second one later this year. We will find more signals and decode them to do astrophysics - this is just the beginning.

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