Late astrophysicist Margherita Hack has become the first Italian woman scientist to have a statue erected in her honor.
The statue was put up opposite Milan’s Statale University on what would have been her 100th birthday Monday. Hack, a great disseminator of scientific knowledge who often appeared on Italian TV, died in 2013 aged 91.
The work was promoted by the Deloitte Foundation in collaboration with the Casa degli Artisti and Milan city council. The statue is also the first of any woman erected on public soil in Milan.
The sculpture, titled ‘Fixed Gaze’, is the work of the Bolognese artist Sissi. “This is the first statue of a woman on public ground in Milan and the first in Italy dedicated to a woman of science,” said Milan culture councillor Tommaso Sacchi. “The fact that Milan did not have any statues devoted to women who had a role in history, culture and science was something scandalous. “This stature brings us into line with many Italian cities, but Milan must lead the modernity of the country”.
