Susanna Parenti - solar guides

Where do you work?
I used to work in Paris, oh-la-la, it's a beautiful city to work in, I love it! I worked at the SOHO Operations Centre at MEDOC, in Orsay, just south of Paris. We sometimes operate the SOHO instruments from there. It's hard work, but great fun.

Here I am having dinner with some friends.

How did you end up in Paris?
I was born and grew up in Firenze, or Florence as it's called in English. I worked at the Arcetri Observatory, just a stone's throw away from Galileo's house! I then went to England, University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) to study solar physics. I enjoyed it very much, but it did rain a lot. I then had the opportunity to work in Paris at MEDOC, and I took it. I'm a sunny person, a bit stubborn, but I always try to be positive. I love the light and the hot weather puts me in a good mood.

My favourite colours are yellow, like the Sun and violet, like the colour of Fiorentina, my favourite football team!

What do you do, besides work?
I'm a sporty person. One of my favourite sports is skiing. At school, I used to train during the week and race every weekend. What a beautiful life!

I also enjoy karate, especially kicking boys! I love movies and dogs too, and my favourite famous people are Michelangelo (a renaissance artist) and Paul Newman - I know, he's getting a bit old now, but he was gorgeous.

Michelangelo's statue of David.

Paul Newman.

How did you become an astronomer?
Well, as I said, I come from Florence (Italy) famous for its art. There I studied at art school and then, in 1995, the comet Halley passed over and I was astonished by the pictures of it. Well, I decided that comets, stars and the blue sky fascinated me more than painting. I studied physics and astronomy at university in Florence.

One of my best experiences of life was in 1999, when I went to north of France to see the total eclipse of the Sun. There I was, just a minute before the totality, when somebody called me on my mobile phone. Typically Italian!

(photo by Derek Maskell)

What solar physics do you do?
I study the solar corona, the outer part of the solar atmosphere. I'm trying to measure the temperature, density and element abundances of different features of the corona. I'm working with data collected by the SOHO satellite.

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