Marica Branchesi among the one hundred most influential people in the world for Time

Marica Branchesi among the one hundred most influential people in the world for Time

Marica Branchesi among the one hundred most influential people in the world for Time

Italian astrophysics, already reported by the journal Nature, is known for having "listened" to gravitational waves

The Italian astrophysics Marica Branchesi is in the ranking of the hundred most influential people in the world written by the American magazine Time. It is the only Italian in the prestigious ranking.

Who is She

The scientist, 41, is an associate professor of the Gran Sasso Science Institute: she works in the Gran Sasso National Laboratories of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN). It owes its fame to having "listened" to gravitational waves. Last December Nature magazine put it in the top ten of the most important scientific personalities of 2017.

Marica Branchesi, a scientist of the VIRGO collaboration, is mentioned in the ranking published by Nature magazine among the 10 most important figures in the world of science.

Branchesi is an associate professor at the Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI) and a researcher associated with INFN, he is also chairman of the gravitational wave astrophysics commission of the International Astronomical Union and member of the International Committee for gravitational waves.

With a role of coordination between the collaboration of the LIGO / VIRGO gravitational interferometers and the electromagnetic telescope network, Branchesi is one of the protagonists of the historic result, announced on 16 October 2017, of the first detection of gravitational waves produced by the fusion of two neutron stars. It was Branchesi among the scientists who presented the result during the LIGO and VIRGO conference in Washington, at the headquarters of the National Science Foundation (NSF), simultaneously with many other conferences in the world, including that of the INFN in Italy, of the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI), in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR).