We are excited that Dr Violette Impellizzeri will join ASTRON as head of the Astronomy & Operations department. She will start her new duties on 1 September 2024. Her research focus is on VLBI investigations of the molecular gas enveloping black holes and spectral line analyses.
Published by the editorial team, 31 May 2024
Dr Impellizzeri completed her doctoral studies in 2008 at the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy in Bonn, focusing on the investigation of molecular absorption and emission in the cores of active galaxies.
Subsequently, she transitioned to a postdoctoral position at NRAO in Charlottesville, where she contributed to the Megamaser Cosmology Project, studying water megamasers close to supermassive black holes, with the aim to determine accurately distance to galaxies and the Hubble constant. During her time at NRAO, the construction of the ALMA telescope commenced, sparking her interest in participating in this significant project and enhancing her expertise in interferometry.
In 2011, Dr Impellizzeri relocated to the Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) in Chile as a commissioning postdoctoral researcher and science fellow. Her involvement during the commissioning phase included early VLBI testing, science verification, and the implementation of high-frequency observing techniques, also known as band-to-band phase transfer. As operations commenced in 2014, she assumed the role of an operations astronomer with added responsibilities such as leading the Phase II Group (P2G), serving as a liaison for VLBI activities (VLBI friend of telescope), and heading the Proposal Handling Team (PHT).
In October 2020, she joined the Allegro ARC Node in Leiden as the Program Manager. Allegro, situated at the Leiden Observatory, serves as the Dutch ALMA Regional Centre Node providing assistance to the ALMA community in the Netherlands and additional expertise to the ALMA Observatory. It offers support for tasks such as data reduction, analysis, archive research, and access to computing resources. Additionally, Allegro is a hub for expertise in sub-mm studies.
Dr Impellizzeri: “I am passionate about cutting-edge observatories and new observing techniques. For this reason I am excited to soon join ASTRON, which is a world-leading centre for radio astronomy research and technology. The coming years are particularly inspiring with LOFAR 2.0 and SKA coming online and the groundbreaking discoveries they will enable – and so I look forward to working with the people at ASTRON to make them a reality!”
Director Prof.Dr. Jessica Dempsey is extremely excited to welcome Dr Impellizzeri to the ASTRON team. “She is a leader in every sense, from boundary-pushing science, to Observatory operational expertise and inspirational commitments to societally responsible astronomy. We are lucky to have her joining us, and now the sky truly is the limit.”