WTI Magazine #48    2014 November, 26
Author : Giuseppina Salzano e Giovanni Verde      Translation by:

Among the most influential and controversial Italian scientists of the last decades, Margherita Hack has distinguished herself in Italy and abroad for studies of astronomy, for her unconventional views and her ability to explain to ordinary people a science as complex as fascinating.

Margherita Hack was born in Florence on June 12, 1922, daughter of Robert Hack, of Swiss origin, and Mary Luisa Poggesi, miniaturist of the Uffizi Gallery. The scientist, because of the outbreak of the Second World War, is not able to do the "esame di maturità", the exam at the end of the Italian secondary school. After the war, in 1945, she graduates in Physics in Florence, with a thesis written under the patronage of Giorgio Abetti, physicist who had long worked in the United States, who is and will always be a academic and human model to Margherita, throughout her whole life.

Hack is appointed Professor of Astronomy at the University of Trieste in 1964. She is the first Italian woman to lead an astronomical observatory, the one in Trieste from 1964 to 1987, transforming it into a center of international importance, where - among others - initiatives such as the ESO Very Large Telescope and the European Extremely Large Telescope will have their base.

Margherita Hack emerges for her brilliant research and academic management skills, and is then appointed Director of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Trieste, a role which will be held twice, from 1985 to 1991 and from 1994 to 1997. She is called to be part of the most important physical and astronomical societies, as well as of the "Accademia dei Lincei", one of the oldest and most prestigious Italian academies, as partner in the national physical, mathematical and natural class.

The Italian scientist works with numerous American and European observatories and is member of several working groups for space missions for ESA and NASA. For having published numerous works, both academic and educational, she is awarded many times: in particular in 1994 of the "Targa Giuseppe Piazzi" for scientific research, and in 1995 of the "Cortina Ulisse International Prize" for scientific popular publishing.

Character of extreme intellectual freedom, Margherita Hack always stands out for her political and social activity in Italy and for her often unconventional positions. She actively participates in the Italian political life working for several progressive parties and enrolling in the Transnational Radical Party.

A proud atheist, Hack proposes a vision of science versus religion, arguing the incompatibility between the religious thought and the need for constant research of the scientific fields. Her ideas often arouse harsh criticism, both in the scientific world and in the Italian and International public opinion. Vegetarian since childhood, she actively fights for animal rights. She also strongly supports the civil rights of gay couples, going against what she calls "the Italian backwardness" and not sparing any criticism towards the Vatican, once again provoking strong reactions from the Church and in the Italian civil society.

Her position on nuclear energy is also peculiar. Even if she takes sides against nuclear power in Italy, because of the lack of a coherent policy on that matter, Margherita Hack affirms the existence of an irrational fear against the nuclear, although such energy pollutes less than oil and coal.

Margherita Hack dies in Trieste on June 29, 2013, because of serious heart and respiratory problems. A strongly opinionated character, the great scientist remains one of the most shiny and bright minds in the Italian and European scientific landscape of the XX century.