Daniela Bettoni

My scientific activity started with studies on the dynamical properties of gas and stars in early-type galaxies. These early works led to two main relevant results: first, the discovery in 1984 (using the ESO telescopes) of the first Elliptical galaxy (NGC 5898) were gas and stars rotate in opposite directions. This phenomenon is now known as "counterrotation". Second, in 1991, the study of the intrinsic shape of an early-type galaxy. Using the gas as a tracer of the potential well it was possible to deduce that the intrinsic shape of the elliptical galaxy NGC 5077 is triaxial. Both these results were the basis of studies, both from us and many other groups, that led to consider early-type galaxies as triaxial systems. In the following years, the study of the intrinsic shape of galaxies led in 1995 also to the discovery of the first spiral galaxy (NGC 3626) were gas and stars are in counter-rotation. This paper, published in NATURE, was described by one of the referee as "a smoking gun for the theories of galaxy formation". Years before the discovery that kinematical decoupling and interactions are the rule for the galaxies in the high-z universe, my work shows the importance of interactions in the life of a galaxy even in the present epoch. "Counterrotation" now is known in hundreds of galaxies in the local universe. In the following years I studied the properties of galaxies in compact groups and in 2000 I was one of the founding members of the WINGS (Wide-field Imaging Survey of Nearby Clusters Survey) project. This study led to the creation of the first complete database of photometric and spectroscopic data for 78 nearby clusters (0.04