A new president for INAF: Roberto Ragazzoni

The Italian Minister of the University and Research, Anna Maria Bernini, has appointed Roberto Ragazzoni as the new President of the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics.

Roberto Ragazzoni is full professor at the University of Padua, and has been director of the local INAF Astronomical Observatory from 2018 to 2023.

Prof. Ragazzoni knows very well our Telescopio Nazionale Galileo and the FGG staff. Since the beginning of his career he has played a key role for the design and commissioning of the TNG, the 4m class national telescope, still the biggest italian optical facility. He also developed and commissioned the Adaptive Optics module for the TNG, also know as AdOpt@TNG. It was the first AO system based on one of Prof. Ragazzoni’s invention, the Piramid Wavefront Sensor, and closed the loop on sky in the year 2000.

In his new position as President of INAF he will also be one of the Patrons of the Fundación Galileo Galilei, supervising that both the TNG (in La Palma) and ASTRI-MA (soon ready in Tenerife) maintains their levels of excellence.

Throughout his career, Prof Ragazzoni already received significant recognitions such as the "Wolfgang Pauli" award from the Humboldt Foundation in Germany in the year 2000, the "Feltrinelli" award for astronomy in 2016, and was appointed as a member of the Lincei Academy in 2019

His contribution to the design and development of ground based and space telescopes and optical systems is in continuous evolution still after 30 years.

Welcome Roberto!

The recently appointed president of INAF, Prof. R. Ragazzoni, during his last visit for the 25th anniversary of TNG inauguration, with the Director of TNG A. Ghedina.