I made my first steps in the astronomical research working on optical identification and spectroscopy of radio sources. This led, in the late ‘70s-early’80s, G.Vettolani and myself to the spectroscopic study of superclusters of galaxies, first revealed to us by the constancy of the redshifts of radiogalaxies in the Perseus-Pisces area. The spectra were obtained with the Cassini telescope of the Bologna University, equipped by us with image tubes and, later, CCD detectors. We obtained evidence of the filamentary structure of superclusters around large “voids”. (ref. 1, 2, 3)
In the early ’80, the accession of Italy to ESO enhanced the possibility to compete for the access to major telescopes. This, coupled with an early development of digital analysis techniques of large images, made possible a long term program aiming to understand the cosmological evolution of QSO, and their contribution to the X ray background. We merged – I think for the first time – on the same field the three available techniques for the identification of QSO candidates: colours, slitless spectroscopy, and variability. The spectroscopic follow up, performed at the ESO 3.6m telescope, produced a “complete” sample which represented, for years, one of the main references in the study the evolution of QSO, for completeness and low contamination. This activity started in collaboration with Zamorani and Zitelli, involving in the time other colleagues (among them Mignoli, Cimatti, Boyle). (ref. 4,5,6,7,8)
The applied technique produced the multicolour photometry of all the optical sources in the field, down to magnitude 22 – 5000 objects, a real achievement with instrumentation and computers of the time. The field (nicknamed – for brevity – “Marano field” first by the ROSAT group and after by others) had at the time the deepest complete photometric study in the southern sky (and possibly in the entire sky). It was thus selected for a number of multiband observations, in X rays, Radio, Far Infrared, anticipating a sort of “ante litteram Cosmos program” (see, as an example, www.ucolick.org/~elbaz/sirtf/mf_infos.html )
In the mid ’90s, I have been member of the ESO committee having the task of establishing a long term instrumentation plan for the Very Large Telescope. One of the outcomes was the proposal, and construction, of a spectrograph with high multiplexing capability, opening in ESO the possibility of massive extragalactic spectroscopic surveys. The well known surveys VVDS and z-Cosmos involved large international groups, who observed – in tight coordination - many thousands of faint Galaxies and Quasars in Optical, Radio, X-Rays, and Infrared bands with the world major observing facilities. The surveys produced strong constraint to the process of formation and evolution of galaxies after the Big Bang (ref. 9,10,11,12,13).
Extragalactic surveys necessarily evolved toward a “big science” organisation. In that framework, I was (2002-2005) National P.I. of two Research Programs of National Interest (PRIN), approved and funded by the Ministry of Research : “Understanding the High redshift Universe” and “Unveiling the Universe after the “dark ages” “, related respectively to the VVDS and z-Cosmos surveys. These programs were instrumental in involving Italian researchers in the wide international group running the surveys and harvesting their results.
In the years I have been involved in other studies. I will mention here a pair of them:
- the search for Globular Clusters in the Andromeda galaxy (the twin of our Galaxy), producing an estimate of its mass through the measure of the GC kinematics. In the early ‘80ies the program got observing time, allotted upon international competition, on the Kitt Peak 3.5m and the 6m Russian telescopes, two of the world major observing facilities at the time. (see, e.g., ref. 14, 15)
- a participation in the FP7 funded program “Preparation of E-ELT”, which led to the growth of a strong, skilled and young research group in Bologna, which is now leading the construction of a key focal facility of EELT (MAORY). As a “side product”, we applied optics solutions adopted in astronomical telescopes to solar concentrators and proposed a new design, providing a significant increase in efficiency (patent, and ref. 15).
After 1995 I have been involved, as member of a number of scientific/managerial bodies, in proposing, reviewing, and managing great astronomical infrastructures. My activity progressively moved toward organisational and strategic objectives, implying an increasing quantity of time and work to be spent in local (University), national (National Institute of Astrophysics) and international (LBT, ESO) commitments. In this I was moved by the vision –or at least the wish - of contributing in providing the next generation of scientists in my communities (Bologna, Italy, ESO-Europe) with the most advanced opportunities in science.
I (co)authored about 150 scientific papers on refereed international journals. Most of them can be retrieved from the SAO-NASA ADS: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html ). A full list can be found in https://www.unibo.it/sitoweb/bruno.marano/publications .
A selected list, descriptive of the scientific activity and quoted above, is reported here:
1 - Bergamini R., Braccesi A., Colla G., Fanti C., Ficarra A., Formiggini L., Gandolfi E., Gioia I., Lari C., Marano B., Padrielli L., Tomasi P., Vigotti M., 1973, Optical Identifications of Radiosources from the B 2 Catalogue. Quasi Stellar Sources, ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS , Vol. 23 p.195-207
2 - Focardi, P., Marano B., Vettolani G. (1982). The south west extension of the Perseus supercluster. ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS. vol. 113 pp. 15-20 ISSN: 0004-6361
3- Vettolani, G., De Souza, R. E., Marano B., Chincarini G. (1985). The distribution of voids. ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS. vol. 144 pp. 506-513 ISSN: 0004-6361
4. - Marano B., Zamorani G., Zitelli V. (1988). A new sample of Quasars to B=22.5. MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. vol. 232 pp. 111-129 ISSN: 0035-8711
5 - Zitelli V., Mignoli M., Zamorani G., Marano B., Boyle B. J. (1992). A spectroscopically complete sample of quasars with BJ ≤ 22.0. MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. vol. 256 pp. 349-367 ISSN: 0035-8711
6 - Zamorani G., Mignoli M., Zitelli V., Marano B., Boyle B. J. (1992). The Baldwin effect in complete optically selected samples of quasars. MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. vol. 256 pp. 238-246 ISSN: 0035-8711
7 - Cimatti A, Zamorani G., Marano B. (1993). Optical Variability of faint quasars. MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. vol. 263 pp. 236 ISSN: 0035-8711
8- Zamorani G., Mignoli M., Hasinger G., Burg R., Giacconi R., Schmidt M., Trumper J., Ciliegi P., Gruppioni C., Marano B. (1999). The ROSAT deep survey: X ray sources and optical identifications in the Marano field. ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS SUPPLEMENT SERIES. vol. 346 pp. 731-752 ISSN: 0365-0138
9 - Le Fevre O., …..Marano B., et al.. (2005). A large population of galaxies 9 to 12 billion years back in the history of the Universe. NATURE. vol. 437 pp. 519 - 521 ISSN: 0028-0836
10 - Lilly S. J.; … Marano B et al. : zCOSMOS: A Large VLT/VIMOS Redshift Survey Covering 0 < z < 3 in the COSMOS Field, «ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL SUPPLEMENT SERIES», 2007, 172, pp. 70 - 85
11 - Bongiorno, A.; … B. Marano et al. - The VVDS type 1 AGN sample: The faint end of the luminosity function, ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS, 2007, 472, pp. 443 - 454
12 - Guzzo L.; .; ..Marano B. et al., A test of the nature of cosmic acceleration using galaxy redshift distortions, NATURE, 2008, 451, pp. 541 - 544 [articolo]
13 - Le Fèvre O., ….Marano B. .. et al.., The VIMOS VLT Deep Survey final data release: a spectroscopic sample of 35 016 galaxies and AGN out to z ~ 6.7 selected with 17.5 ≤ iAB ≤ 24.75, ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS, 2013, 559, pp. 1 - 21
14 - Federici L., Marano B., Fusi Pecci F., 1990, Kinematics of a sample of globular clusters in the halo and the mass of M 31, ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS , Vol 236, pp. 99-106
15 - Federici L., Bonoli F., Ciotti L., Fusi-Pecci F., Marano B., Lipovetsky V.~A., Niezvestny S.~I., Spassova N., 1993, Kinematics of a Sample of Globular Clusters in the Halo and the Mass of M31, ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS Vol. 274, pp. 87-95
16 - Giannuzzi A.; Diolaiti E.; Lombini M.; De Rosa A.; Marano B.; Bregoli G.; Cosentino G.; Foppiani I.; Schreiber L., Enhancing the efficiency of solar concentrators by controlled optical aberrations: Method and photovoltaic application, «APPLIED ENERGY», 2015, 145, pp. 211 - 222
