Antonella Nota

Antonella Nota is an Italian astronomer, executive director of the International Space Science Institute in Bern, Switzerland, and astronomer emerita at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, USA. Her research interests include star formation and young star clusters; she has also worked on science outreach that bridges science and art and advocated for underrepresented groups, including women, in astronomy. Nota is originally from Venice, but was a student at the University of Padua. She was seconded to the Space Telescope Science Institute from the European Space Agency in 1986 and continued to work for ESA until her retirement as head of the ESA office at the institute in 2022. She was appointed director of the International Space Science Institute starting in 2023. Nota was elected to the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti in 2017. In 2022, she received the NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal. In 2023, the American Astronomical Society (AAS) named Nota a Fellow of the AAS, “for extraordinary scientific leadership and service to the international astronomical community, facilitating a key partnership between NASA and the European Space Agency, and for inspiring and engaging the public with the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope.”