2 minutes with... Dr Chiara Ferrari

Director, Maison SKA-France; Member of the SKA Board of Directors

Chiara visited SKA HQ in February for a week of high-level meetings – we caught up with her to find out more.

You wear many hats within the SKA – tell us about your roles.

As director of SKA-France, I coordinate the scientific and technological preparatory activities in France. I’m also an astronomer based at Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, and part of the SKA Science Working Groups. That keeps me connected to my field of research, extragalactic continuum analysis, and to developments in radio astronomy more broadly.

What have you been doing this week?

I’ve been attending two big meetings. One was to organise contracts relating to the SKA scientific data handling and processing software. France is extremely interested in the corresponding hardware part, so we want to collaborate with our international colleagues developing software in order to create a synergy between these two parts of the SKA.

The second was the Council Preparatory Task Force (CPTF) where we discussed the future construction proposal for the SKA. France is an observer as we’ve not yet signed the SKA Observatory Convention, and my role is as an advisor. There were challenging discussions and that’s extremely constructive – it’s what we need in this phase.

What’s the current status of SKA in France?

After CNRS, the leading institute of SKA-France, joined the SKA Organisation in July 2018, we have kept working with the community to identify the SKA scientific and technological domains of greatest interest for France as well as for the SKA project. At the moment, Maison SKA-France is further developing its funding application for France to eventually engage into the SKA Observatory.

How have you found being at the HQ with so many colleagues here this week?

I come here quite often and it’s always great; the building’s design encourages interaction, while allowing us to have quiet discussions when needed. Sometimes buildings aren’t conceived in this way, so people don’t have the opportunity to meet. I planned half the meetings I had, but the other half came from just running into people, and that allowed us to progress so much work during this week.