Angelica Sartori, Physics

«I would like to be able to say that my studies were the result of a thoughtful decision, but this was not the case. Fortunately, even the most unconscious, almost random choices can turn out to be happy ones. The thing I'm most happy about was not having left the College for my specialist degree: the opportunities I have been offered in recent years have been unique" (FILDIS, 2010-11) 

From Cremona, Angelica chooses to come to study in Pavia, attracted by an interesting competitive advantage in her eyes: the presence of University Colleges, with the possibility, also, of competing for a place at the IUSS Higher School which, in the same year of Angelica's entrance, had just obtained formal recognition from the MIUR, after eight years of experimentation!
In fact, Angelica entered the Collegio Nuovo in September 2005, her "second home", a privileged observatory on the world for her, enrolled in Physics and soon oriented towards the study of the stars. She won the master's degree five years later with top marks, with Andrea De Luca, and also following the lessons at the IUSS of Giovanni Bignami, who is "at home" at the Collegio Nuovo. As a graduate student, in fact, Angelica finds in her "second home", thanks to professor Bignami, a very special guest: none other than astronaut Paolo Nespoli, returning from the Esperia space mission of the Space Shuttle Discovery, and shortly after, at the end of the World Year of Astronomy, the President of the Italian Association of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Amalia Ercoli Finzi.

Angelica proceeds quickly and with excellent results towards her degree, between one football match and another in the intercollegiate tournaments winning many "Copponi" awards, also ensuring her active presence during visits by delegations of international partners of the College, such as the Dubai Women's College in 2008. Together with two Collegio Nuovo colleagues from Political Science and Medicine, she was selected to participate in the conference promoted by the Women's Education Worldwide network. In the first days of 2010 she therefore left, also with a contribution from the College and the Community Foundation of the Province of Pavia, for Australia, at the Women's College of the University of Sydney: she too had to participate in the session reserved for students and present papers on equal opportunities and education, prepared in the months before at the College. Three students in front of an audience of College representatives from Dubai to the United States, from China to Japan and Korea, without forgetting the delegation from her College itself: an experience and an image that are worthwhile, thanks also to many other empowerment initiatives promoted by the Nuovo, a quote on the "Meritocracy" blog by Roger Abravanel, for the "Corriere della Sera".
In fact, there were numerous initiatives in this sense when Angelica was in College: the agreement with Accenture, formalized the year of her entry, which also led to two editions of a practical job placement course; then, in 2008, that of the series of meetings "Economic literacy", with the participation, among others, of Rosanna Massarenti, Director of "Altroconsumo" and author of "Women and money".

Angelica's degree also resulted in a publication on "Astronomy and Astrophysics", followed by a brilliant PhD in Astrophysics again at the University of Pavia (also collaborating at the National Institute of Astrophysics in Milan): during the doctorate she leaves abroad again, but this time for a couple of months and at the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics.
For almost a year she was Junior Scientist at Compagnia Generale dello Spazio (formerly Carlo Gavazzi Space) and was part of the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) team, for the development of a European space observation strategy, including the calculation of risk factors and their prevention. Then, from risk to risk, the leap into the world of risk management. Angelica accepts the challenge of dealing with economics, as a consultant in a project in collaboration with Accenture and Intesa San Paolo in the IT-Finance sector: she will assist the front office of Banca IMI (Intesa Group) for the stock and derivatives markets. A leaping choice also shared by other Nuovine scientists!

Travelling and packing up for a "weighty" curriculum: "It is truly incredible how a College as small as ours, and with limited economic resources - think of Dubai Women's College or Barnard College - manages to organize so many activities, and that we all get decidedly positive feedback. My advice to all our colleagues is not to miss the opportunities that the College offers us every year since these are unique experiences that we will no longer have the opportunity to live. We will keep a beautiful memory of this trip for our whole lives: an adventure that enriched our cultural background and certainly also our CV" ("Nuovità", n. 21)