Roman native Federico Balzoni joined the Specola in 2007 and his day to day job is office management. This also includes the organization of VO Conferences at the Specola and the biannual Summer School, as well as liaising with the media on behalf of the VO. Together with astronomer Fr. David BROWN S.J., Federico has also been instrumen- tal in the creation and expansion of the Specola Library searcheable database. Working diligently day after day, he has helped to catalogue and to enter into the database thousands of books.

He says “working at the Specola is really a special way to serve the Holy Father and in a sense help in the mission that is particular to the Observatory, as a world suspended between science and faith”.