The Human Computer

The Italian National Space Day on December 16th celebrates the 1964 launch of the S. Marco 1 satellite, which made Italy the third country after the United States and the Soviet Union to place an artificial satellite into orbit.

Event at Istituto Italiano di Cultura

Friday, 12/16/2022, 7:00 p.m, live stream on Zoom

The Human Computer, with Elena Sacchi, Valeriya Korol and Yuri Cavecchi

Moderation: Vincenzo Fiorentini

Elena Sacchi, Valeriya Korol and Yuri Cavecchi discuss with Vincenzo Fiorentini the work and life of Katherine Johnson. Together with Alessandro Patruno, they have edited and commented a selection of the scientific works of the extraordinary mathematician, one of the so-called human computers of NASA, performing calculations for space missions such as the Apollo program, who helped the Agency become the most successful space operation in the world in the 1960s. The book is published by Quaternion Books, a publishing startup managed by the authors themselves.

Elena Sacchi, astrophysicist, received her PhD from the University of Bologna and then worked as a postdoc at the Space Telescope Science Institute. She currently works at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics in Potsdam.

Valeriya Korol is a gravitational wave astronomer. She worked at the Institute for Gravitational Wave Astronomy at the University of Birmingham (UK) and is currently at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (Garching).

Yuri Cavecchi graduated in astronomy from the University of Padua, Italy, and received his PhD from the Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy. He is currently working at the Institute of Astronomy at UNAM.

Vincenzo Fiorentini is Professor of Condensed Matter Physics at the University of Cagliari, Italy. He is currently Esperto scientifico of the Italian Embassy in Germany.