Ileana Chinnici is astronomer at the INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo; she mainly works in the field of history of astronomy and is in charge of the historical collections of the observatory as ‘responsabile scientifico’. Her research is mainly focused on nineteenth-century astronomy and especially on the impact of spectroscopy and photography. She is particularly interested in biographical studies on early Italian astrophysicists and in early international cooperation projects in astronomy