NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE1 March 2018

Federico Ferrini Begins Tenure as CTA Managing Director

Bologna, Italy – On 1 March 2018, Prof.

Federico Ferrini became CTA’s new Managing

Director, succeeding Prof. Ueli Straumann who

has served since 2016.

Beyond his deep experience in the field of

astrophysics, Ferrini brings extensive knowledge

in the management of large international

scientific projects. After dedicating more than 30

years to astrophysics research and teaching at

the University of Pisa, which included directing

the Astronomy and Astrophysics Group, Ferrini

was named Director of the European Gravitational

Observatory (EGO) in 2011. As director, he fostered the collaboration and technical

advancement of the VIRGO interferometric antenna – one of the three largest gravitational

detectors in the world. Some of his other professional positions have included Scientific

Attaché at the Permanent Mission of Italy in Geneva and Chair of both the CERN Pension

Fund Governing Board and Investment Committee.

“At this critical point of the CTA project, we look forward to Federico bringing his long-

standing experience on the VIRGO project to build on the progress made by Ueli in the

construction of what will be the world’s preeminent observatory for studying the high-energy

Universe,” said Gabriel Chardin, Chair of the CTA Council.

During his three-year tenure, Ferrini intends to apply his leadership and enthusiasm to the

CTA construction project with the goal of bringing its vast scientific potential closer to reality.

© Cyril Frésillon / CNRS Photothèque

“It is an honour to be selected to help lead CTA as it prepares for construction and begins

building telescopes on site,” said Ferrini. “CTA is a major pillar for the future of astro-particle

physics, and I look forward to collaborating with the highly-motivated people who have

contributed to bringing CTA to this exciting point in its development. My predecessor, Ueli, is

one of those people — he has done outstanding work forging a path to achieving CTA’s

ambitious objectives, and I plan to continue following that path."

Notes for Editors:CTA (www.cta-observatory.org) is a global initiative to build the world’s largest and most

sensitive high-energy gamma-ray observatory with more than 100 telescopes located in the

northern hemisphere (at the Roque de los Muchachos astronomical observatory on the

island of La Palma, Spain) and the southern hemisphere (near the existing European

Southern Observatory site at Paranal, Chile). More than 1,400 scientists and engineers from

32 countries are engaged in the scientific and technical development of CTA. The planning

for the construction of the Observatory is managed by the CTAO gGmbH, which is governed

by a council of Shareholders and Associate Members from Australia, Austria, Czech

Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Slovenia, Switzerland, South Africa

and the United Kingdom.

CTA will serve as an open observatory to the world-wide physics and astrophysics

communities. The CTA Observatory will detect high-energy radiation with unprecedented

accuracy and approximately 10 times better sensitivity than current instruments, providing

novel insights into the most extreme events in the Universe.

CTA is included in the 2008 roadmap of the European Strategy Forum on Research

Infrastructures. This project is receiving funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020

research and innovation programs under agreement No 676134. This project has received

funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme ([FP7/2007-2013]

[FP7/2007-2011]) under Grant Agreement 262053.

Contacts:Megan Grunewald, CTA Communications Officer+49-6221-516471; mgrunewald@cta-observatory.org

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