336
remained at Montemario, as well as the solar tower which also remained under the
responsibility of OAR. The reform of 1999 was completed in 2003 when the Italian
government also folded seven institutes of CNR related to astrophysics (two of them
in Rome) into INAF. The observatories no longer had their previous autonomy, and
from that point, their directors were appointed by the president of INAF. At the end
of 2005, Buonanno stepped down, and Emanuele Giallongo was nominated as new
director of OAR for the following 6 years; then Fabrizio Fiore became director for
the next 6 years.
In 2004, Italian research (and consequently INAF) was reformed again. At the
same time, due to the general economic situation of the country, it suffered a significant reduction in budget. The economic situation also negatively influenced recruitment and career policies. In Rome, the two former CNR institutes were merged in
one larger institute fully dedicated to space astrophysics and planetology: Istituto di
Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziale (IAPS).
In spite of these difficulties, OAR maintained at a high level the scientific activity
(Fig. 19.6): OAR scientists were named principal investigators and realized the
Large Binocular Camera to equip the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) in Arizona;
they started a close collaboration with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) for participating in the scientific management of the ASI Space Data Center (ASDC); they established the Center for Studying the Solar Variability (CSV) at Monte Porzio; they
coordinated the Italian participation in the LBT, also establishing the LBC Survey
Center at Monte Porzio; they participated in the installation of new instruments
within ESO; they coordinated INAF participation in the international experiment
MAGIC for very-high-energy astronomy; and they coordinated and/or participated
in the development of several astronomical satellites (e.g., BeppoSAX, Swift,
NuSTAR, AGILE, Gaia, Euclid, Hermes, etc.). For many years OAR scientists have
been playing an important role in a number of fields of astrophysics, scoring at top
among INAF institutes for scientific production in the Nature Index
1
(Fig. 19.5).
Furthermore, a close collaboration among the three universities in Rome has
offered students new opportunities to study and work within an active research institute. Since 2015, OAR has put a great effort into renewing the observing facilities at
Campo Imperatore – in particular the Schmidt telescope, which, thanks to its large
corrected field of view, is a very suitable instrument for looking for optical counterparts of gravitational wave events.
However, in spite of all efforts spent by OAR and the very promising prospects
for successful observations, in 2017 INAF accepted a request from Roberto
Buonanno (at that time director of Teramo Observatory) and agreed to separate
Campo Imperatore from OAR and put it under the responsibility of Teramo
Observatory. Buonanno renamed the joint institute as the Astronomical Observatory
of Abruzzo and decided against its possible merging with OAR (Buonanno 2018),
1 http://www.natureindex.com/institution-outputs/italy/national-institute-for-astrophysics-inaf/
5139073d34d6b65e6a00226f
L. A. Antonelli
remained at Montemario, as well as the solar tower which also remained under the
responsibility of OAR. The reform of 1999 was completed in 2003 when the Italian
government also folded seven institutes of CNR related to astrophysics (two of them
in Rome) into INAF. The observatories no longer had their previous autonomy, and
from that point, their directors were appointed by the president of INAF. At the end
of 2005, Buonanno stepped down, and Emanuele Giallongo was nominated as new
director of OAR for the following 6 years; then Fabrizio Fiore became director for
the next 6 years.
In 2004, Italian research (and consequently INAF) was reformed again. At the
same time, due to the general economic situation of the country, it suffered a significant reduction in budget. The economic situation also negatively influenced recruitment and career policies. In Rome, the two former CNR institutes were merged in
one larger institute fully dedicated to space astrophysics and planetology: Istituto di
Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziale (IAPS).
In spite of these difficulties, OAR maintained at a high level the scientific activity
(Fig. 19.6): OAR scientists were named principal investigators and realized the
Large Binocular Camera to equip the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) in Arizona;
they started a close collaboration with the Italian Space Agency (ASI) for participating in the scientific management of the ASI Space Data Center (ASDC); they established the Center for Studying the Solar Variability (CSV) at Monte Porzio; they
coordinated the Italian participation in the LBT, also establishing the LBC Survey
Center at Monte Porzio; they participated in the installation of new instruments
within ESO; they coordinated INAF participation in the international experiment
MAGIC for very-high-energy astronomy; and they coordinated and/or participated
in the development of several astronomical satellites (e.g., BeppoSAX, Swift,
NuSTAR, AGILE, Gaia, Euclid, Hermes, etc.). For many years OAR scientists have
been playing an important role in a number of fields of astrophysics, scoring at top
among INAF institutes for scientific production in the Nature Index
1
(Fig. 19.5).
Furthermore, a close collaboration among the three universities in Rome has
offered students new opportunities to study and work within an active research institute. Since 2015, OAR has put a great effort into renewing the observing facilities at
Campo Imperatore – in particular the Schmidt telescope, which, thanks to its large
corrected field of view, is a very suitable instrument for looking for optical counterparts of gravitational wave events.
However, in spite of all efforts spent by OAR and the very promising prospects
for successful observations, in 2017 INAF accepted a request from Roberto
Buonanno (at that time director of Teramo Observatory) and agreed to separate
Campo Imperatore from OAR and put it under the responsibility of Teramo
Observatory. Buonanno renamed the joint institute as the Astronomical Observatory
of Abruzzo and decided against its possible merging with OAR (Buonanno 2018),
1 http://www.natureindex.com/institution-outputs/italy/national-institute-for-astrophysics-inaf/
5139073d34d6b65e6a00226f
L. A. Antonelli