Mariafelicia De Laurentis, a graduate of the Federico II University, at the helm of SIGRAV

Mariafelicia De Laurentis is the new president of SIGRAV, the Italian Society for General Relativity and Gravitational Physics. A professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics in the Department of Physics at Federico II University and a researcher at the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), she is the first woman to be elected to lead the Society since its founding in 1990.

SIGRAV, founded in 1990, is the leading organization for the Italian scientific community in the fields of general relativity, gravitational physics, relativistic astrophysics, cosmology, gravitational waves, black holes, and, more generally, fundamental physics.

De Laurentis has been engaged for years in the study of gravity, black holes, and the testing of gravitational theories; she is also a project scientist for the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), the international collaboration that obtained the first images of a black hole.

“I am deeply honored by the trust that the SIGRAV community has placed in me,” comments De Laurentis. “This election represents a great responsibility and, at the same time, a strong incentive to contribute to the growth of a scientific community that I consider my academic home. SIGRAV has accompanied my research journey since the very beginning of my career, and today, at an extraordinary moment for our discipline marked by the first images of black holes, the discovery of gravitational waves, and new tests of general relativity, I wish to commit myself to further strengthening its role at the national and international levels, by supporting scientific excellence, young researchers, and research that is increasingly open, interdisciplinary, and collaborative.”

SIGRAV brings together researchers from universities, the INFN, the INAF, and numerous other research institutions, promoting scientific collaboration, the training of the next generation, and the dissemination of scientific culture in the field of gravitation. Among the Society’s most prestigious initiatives is the “Edoardo Amaldi” Medal, named after one of the founding fathers of modern Italian physics and the founder of INFN. The award is presented to individuals who have made fundamental contributions to the physics of gravitation and, over the years, has been awarded to some of the most influential scientists on the international stage.