INFN is participating once more this year with numerous initiatives to the International Day of Women and Girls in Science celebrated on February 11. Established in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly, the International Day for Women in Science is an opportunity to promote the full and equal participation of women and girls in science, in education, training, employment, and decision-making.
INFN social media channels are joining the #WomenInScience communication campaign, together with other large international laboratories, such as CERN. On Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter, we will post four stories of young female researchers working on the four large experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider.
On February 9 at 9 am in Trento, the Fondazione Bruno Kessler, in collaboration with the University of Trento and INFN TIFPA, is organizing the event "Be a scientist - between professional identity and gender equality": the profession of research as seen by two exceptional protagonists, Caterina Petrillo, president of Area Science Park and full professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Perugia, and Roberto Battiston, professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Trento and former President of the Italian Space Agency. The two speakers will talk about the world of research, how it has evolved over the years and what to expect for those who want to approach it, with a special discussion on the actions to be taken to reach gender equality. The event will be held live online on Fondazione Bruno Kessler's LinkedIn, Facebook and Youtube channels.
Many other events will take place on February 11. At 11.00 a.m. the INFN Legnaro National Laboratories will organize the online event "Rosalind Franklin: DNA and surroundings": researchers will talk about the life and discoveries of the Rosalind Franlink and about the cutting-edge research activities of LNL on radiopharmaceuticals and therapies using radiation.
The INFN Frascati National Laboratories celebrate this day with the online event "Towards Inclusive Science", live from 9.30 am on the LNF YouTube channel, which will involve women and men from the world of research who, starting from their personal and professional experiences, will tell successes and daily challenges to students of the fourth and fifth year of secondary schools. The objective is to stimulate girls and boys to reflect and discuss about obstacles and opportunities in their educational path as well as about the role of women in society and in research.
The Gran Sasso Science Institute and the University of L'Aquila organize the conference "ResearcHER, perspectives of science". The event will be held at 10.00 am at the University Auditorium and online, and will see as guests Lucia Votano, former Director of the INFN Gran Sasso National Laboratories, Giuliana Galati, particle physicist, science communicator and member of CICAP, Serena Giacomin, climatologist and meteorologist for Mediaset and DeAgostini, and Lorenzo Gasparrini, philosopher, feminist educator and activist.
Researchers from Padova will answer, through videos and online meetings, to the questions of students of Italian secondary schools on the subject of physics and astronomy, but also on their questions about the university studies or even about the equal access to science. The initiative is organized by the INFN Division of Padova, the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Padova and the INAF Observatory of Padova, with the support of the Italian Office for Astronomy Outreach of the International Astronomical Union. The initiative will be launched on February 11th and will take place in the following weeks and months.
Special editions of the International Masterclasses organized by IPPOG will be held in Cagliari and at the University "La Sapienza" in Rome. The Sardinian edition, online, organized by the INFN Division of Cagliari and by the University of Cagliari, will be attended by 82 students from sixteen schools throughout Sardinia. The proposed experimental activities will cover particle physics and astrophysics as well as matter physics. The students will be engaged for two afternoons in the first 10 days of February and will participate in the final event on February 11 where they will attend a debate on gender and science and will be able to expose the results of their work. At the University "La Sapienza", instead, students will be involved in a one day long event: in addition to the seminars in the morning and the masterclass in the afternoon, they will be able to participate in the "lunch-with-researchers", during which they can exchange ideas and ask informal questions to the researchers.
The INFN Division of Roma3, Naples and the INFN associated group of Cosenza are also organizing the International Masterclasses for girls. About 80 female high school students from 14 schools in Calabria and Basilicata and 25 female students from Sardinia will participate to the event online, while 20 female students from Lazio and 36 from Campania will be join the event in physical presence. For this year, a part of the event will be shared in the three cities: participants will be able to attend remotely the presentation of physicist and sociologist Ilenia Picardi, entitled "Gender equity in science: challenges for girls in STEM". The "hands-on" session will instead allow students to conduct analysis of real data from the ATLAS experiment at CERN and compare the results obtained with colleagues from various European countries.
The University of Rome Tor Vergata, in collaboration with the INFN Division of Rome 2, will offer students the online meeting "STEM: Protagonists of a great history", organized by the association ValoreD and followed by a debate with the researchers of the University and of the INFN Division.
The researcher Carla Aramo, of the INFN Divison of Naples will join the online campaign organized by the Pierre Auger Collaboration, while the researcher Iaia Masullo will participate in the event "Science: feminine noun", organized by the Association “Social Project,” from 9.00 am on February 11 at Villa Bruno in San Giorgio a Cremano, aimed at secondary school students of first and second degree, with the aim to bring them closer to science and school careers through an experience of tutoring.
In Pavia, a side-event of the Researchers' Night will be organized on Friday. The initiative is conceived by Silva Bortolussi (INFN and UniPV) and Ilaria Canobbio (Department of Biology UniPV). The event is included in the Sharper events and is carried out in collaboration with the Third Mission and the Sustainability Office of the University of Pavia. During the event, a tree will be planted with a plaque in commemoration of Eva Mameli, the first Italian botanist and a graduate of the University of Pavia; schools will be invited to prepare proposals for the next scientist to whom a new tree will be dedicated.
The INFN Division of Lecce, in collaboration with the Department of Mathematics and Physics of the University of Salento, will celebrate the day with the event "Doctoral students in science: online conversation", to highlight the importance of the role of women and young girls within the scientific community and in the technology field. The meeting will be streamed live on the Facebook channel of the INFN Division of Lecce.
On Friday February 11th at 5 PM the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO) and the Virgo Collaboration will celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science with the online event “Women listening to the cosmo. A Q&A with Virgo scientists”. Virgo researchers Astrid Lamberts, Samaya Nissanke and Ornella Juliana Piccinni will tell us about their lives and careers in the field of gravitational waves astronomy, answering the question from the public. The event will be streamed live on EGO and Virgo Facebook page and YouTube channel.
