Rev. Alessandro Omizzolo

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Rev. Alessandro Omizzolo

Astronomer
Curator Vatican Meteorite Collection
Area of Research: Meteorite Physical Properties

Education:

  • Ph.D. Astronomy – Padua University – 1982
  • Bachelor in Theology, Pontificia Universitas Lateransis (Verona Section) 1987

Memberships:

  • International Astronomical Union (since 2000)
Background:

Fr. Alessandro Omizzolo was born in 1956, in Foza, near Asiago, Italy. He completed his doctoral degree in Astronomy in 1982 at Padua University under the direction of professor Cesare Barbieri with a thesis on Optical and X-rays properties of low-redshift quasars. He then worked in the field of optical variability of QSOs and of their spatial structures from 1982 to 1985.

Ordained in 1987, he is a priest in the Diocese of Padua. Since 1997 he has been a member of the staff of the Vatican Observatory, where he has been working on low-resolution spectra of X-ray candidate quasars to determine the optical luminosity function of low-redshift QSOs. He is also involved in a project with professor Piero Rafanelli (Padua University) to spectroscopically study Seyfert galaxies and isolated galaxies.

Since 2005 he has been a member of an international group of research to study the properties of nearby galaxy clusters; the name of the group is WINGS (WIde-field Nearby Galaxy-cluster Survey).  He is also an associate astronomer of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) at the Padova Astronomical Observatory.

From 2000 he has been involved in an Italian national project to digitize the plates of the Osservatorio Astronomico di Asiago and the Vatican Observatory. For the Vatican Observatory he completed the digitization of the plates of the Schmidt Telescope and is in progress the digitization of the plates of the Carte du Ciel project.

He is also interested in the study of the relationship between faith, philosophy, and science. He has coauthored a number books on this topic, including “Wayfarers in the Cosmos: The Human Quest for Meaning” (With George Coyne; New York: The Crossroads Publishing Company, New York 2001); “Immagini del Cosmo: Cosmologia, Filosofia.” (Padua: Il Poligrafo Casa Editrice. Arte. 2004, in Italian); and “Origini: Atti dei Seminari, Universita di Padova,” (Padua: Sargon Editrice. 2002, in Italian).

Research Interests:

Fr. Omizzolo studies low-resolution spectra of X-ray candidate quasars to determine the optical luminosity function of low-redshift QSOs. He also conducts spectroscopic studies of Seyfert galaxies and isolated galaxies in collaboration with professor Piero Rafanelli at Padua University.  As a member of the WINGS collaboration he studies the properties of nearby galaxy clusters.

From 2000 he has been involved in an Italian national project to digitize the plates of the Osservatorio Astronomico di Asiago and the Vatican Observatory. For the Vatican Observatory he completed the digitization of the plates of the Schmidt Telescope and is in progress the digitization of the plates of the Carte du Ciel project.

He is also interested in the study of the relationship between faith, philosophy, and science.

Books:

  • George V. Coyne SJ and Alessandro Omizzolo, Wayfarers in the Cosmos: A Human Quest for Meaning. (New York: Crossroad, 2002)
  • Alessandro Omizzolo. Immagini del cosmo: Cosmologia, filosofia, arte. (Padua: Il Poligrafo Casa Editrice, 2004; in Italian).
  • Alessandro Omizzolo. Origini: Atti dei Seminari, Università di Padova. (Padua: Sargon Editrice, 2002; in Italian).

Recent Peer-Reviewed Publications:

  • B.M. Poggianti, G. Fasano, A. OMIZZOLO, M. Gullieuszik, D. Bettoni, A. Moretti, A. Paccagnella, Y. L. Jaffe', B. Vulcani, J. Fritz, W. Couch, M. D'Onofrio. Jellyfish galaxy candidates at low redshift. Comments: revised version - improved figures and text, submitted. arXiv:1504.07105
  • M. Gullieuszik, B. Poggianti, G. Fasano, S. Zaggia, A. Paccagnella, A. Moretti, D. Bettoni, M. D'Onofrio, W. J. Couch, B. Vulcani, J. Fritz, A. OMIZZOLO, A. Baruffolo, P. Schipani, M. Capaccioli, J. Varela. (2015) OmegaWINGS: OmegaCAM@VST observations of WINGS galaxy clusters. A&A 581, A41.
  • G. Fasano, B.M. Poggianti, D. Bettoni, M. Donofrio, A. Dressler, B. Vulcani, A. Moretti, M. Gullieuszik, J. Fritz, A. OMIZZOLO, A. Cava, W.J. Couch, M. Ramella, A. Biviano.  Morphological Fractions of Galaxies in WINGS Clusters: revisiting the Morphology-Density Paradigm. arXiv:1503.01339
  • Mauro D'Onofrio, Daniele Bindoni, Gianni Fasano, Daniela Bettoni, Antonio Cava, Jacopo Fritz, Marco Gullieuszik, Per Kjaergaard, Alessia Moretti, Mariano Moles, ALESSANDRO OMIZZOLO, Bianca Poggianti, Tiziano Valentinuzzi, Jesus Varela (2014).  Surface photometry of WINGS galaxies with GASPHOT. A&A 572, A87 arXiv:1410.2441.
  • A. Moretti, B. M. Poggianti, G. Fasano, D. Bettoni, M. D'Onofrio, J. Fritz, A. Cava, J. Varela, B. Vulcani, M. Gullieuszik, W. J. Couch, A. OMIZZOLO, T. Valentinuzzi, A. Dressler, M. Moles, P. Kjaergaard, R. Smareglia, M. Molinaro. WINGS Data Release: a database of galaxies in nearby clusters.  A&A. arXiv:1403.1408
  • J. Fritz, B.M. Poggianti, A. Cava, A. Moretti, J. Varela, D. Bettoni, W.J. Couch, M. D'Onofrio, A. Dressler, G. Fasano, P. Kjaergaard, P. Marziani, M. Moles, A. OMIZZOLO. WINGS-SPE III: Equivalent width measurements, spectral properties and evolution of local cluster galaxies. A&A.  arXiv:1402.4131
  • A. OMIZZOLO, G. Fasano, D. Reverte Paya, C. De Santis, A. Grado, D. Bettoni, B. Poggianti, M. D'Onofrio, A. Moretti, J. Varela, J. Fritz, M. Gullieuszik, A. Cava, A. Grazian, M. Moles. U-band photometry of 17 WINGS clusters. A&A. arXiv:1311.7516
  • M. D'Onofrio, G. Fasano, A. Moretti, P. Marziani, D. Bindoni, J. Fritz, J. Varela, D. Bettoni, A. Cava, B.M. Poggianti, M. Gullieuszik, P. Kjaergaard, M. Moles, B. Vulcani, A. OMIZZOLO, W.J. Couch, A. Dressler. The hybrid solution for the Fundamental Plane. arXiv:1307.2360
  • Bianca M. Poggianti, Rosa Calvi, Daniele Bindoni, Mauro D'Onofrio, Alessia Moretti, Tiziano Valentinuzzi, Giovanni Fasano, Jacopo Fritz, Gabriella De Lucia, Benedetta Vulcani, Daniela Bettoni, Marco Gullieuszik, ALESSANDRO OMIZZOLO. The evolution of galaxy sizes. Proceedings of the IAU S295: The Intriguing Life of Massive Galaxies (ed. D. Thomas, A. Pasquali, & I. Ferreras) arXiv:1212.3207
  • Bianca Poggianti, Rosa Calvi, Daniele Bindoni, Mauro D'Onofrio, Alessia Moretti, Tiziano Valentinuzzi, Gianni Fasano, Jacopo Fritz, Gabriella De Lucia, Benedetta Vulcani, Daniela Bettoni, Marco Gullieuszik, ALESSANDRO OMIZZOLO. Superdense galaxies and the mass-size relation at low redshift. ApJ, in press. arXiv:1211.1005
  • T. Valentinuzzi, B.M. Poggianti, G. Fasano, M. D'Onofrio, A. Moretti, M. Ramella, A. Biviano, J. Fritz, J. Varela, A. Cava, D. Bettoni, B. Vulcani, M. Moles, W.J. Couch, A. Dressler, P. Kjaergaard, A. OMIZZOLO. The red-sequence of 72 WINGS local galaxy clusters. A&A. arXiv:1109.4011
  • G. Fasano, E. Vanzella, A. Dressler, B.M. Poggianti, M. Moles, D. Bettoni, T. Valentinuzzi, A. Moretti, M. D'Onofrio, J. Varela, W.J. Couch, P. Kjaergaard, J. Fritz, A. OMIZZOLO, A. Cava. Morphology of galaxies in the WINGS clusters. MNRAS. arXiv:1109.2026
  • Benedetta Vulcani, Bianca M. Poggianti, Alfonso Aragón-Salamanca, Giovanni Fasano, Gregory Rudnick, Tiziano Valentinuzzi, Alan Dressler, Daniela Bettoni, Antonio Cava, Mauro D'Onofrio, Jacopo Fritz, Alessia Moretti, ALESSANDRO OMIZZOLO, Jesús Varela. Galaxy stellar mass functions of different morphological types in clusters, and their evolution between z=0.8 and z=0. MNRAS In press. arXiv:1010.4442
  • J. Fritz, B. M. Poggianti, A. Cava, T. Valentinuzzi, A. Moretti, D. Bettoni, A. Bressan, W. J. Couch, M. D'Onofrio, A. Dressler, G. Fasano, P. Kjaergaard, M. Moles, A. OMIZZOLO, J. Varela. WINGS-SPE II: A catalog of stellar ages and star formation histories, stellar masses and dust extinction values for local clusters galaxies. A&A.  arXiv:1010.2214
  • G. Fasano, D. Bettoni , B. Ascaso, G. Tormen, B.M. Poggianti, T. Valentinuzzi, M. D'Onofrio, J. Fritz, A. Moretti, A. OMIZZOLO, A. Cava, M. Moles, A. Dressler, W.J. Couch, P. Kjaergaard, J. Varrela. The Shapes of BCGs and normal Ellipticals in Nearby Clusters. MNRAS. arXiv:1001.2701
  • T.Valentinuzzi, J. Fritz, B. M. Poggianti, A. Cava, D. Bettoni, G. Fasano, M. D'Onofrio, W.J. Couch, A. Dressler, M. Moles, A. Moretti, A. OMIZZOLO, P. Kjaergaard, E. Vanzella, J. Varela. Superdense Massive Galaxies in Wings Local Clusters. ApJ. arXiv:0907.2392
  • T. Valentinuzzi, D.Woods, G. Fasano, M. Riello, M. D'Onofrio, J. Varela, D. Bettoni, A. Cava, W.J. Couch, A. Dressler, J. Fritz, M. Moles, A. OMIZZOLO, B.M. Poggianti, P. Kjaergaard. (2009) WINGS: a WIde-field nearby Galaxy-cluster survey III. Deep near-infrared photometry of 28 nearby clusters. A&A 501: 851V. arXiv:0902.0954

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