Chinnici earned a degree in physics in 1992 from the University of Palermo with a dissertation concerning Italian astronomer Pietro Tacchini, supervised by Giorgia Foderà. After working as a secondary school teacher, and a visiting position at the Paris Observatory, she joined the Palermo Astronomical Observatory as a research fellow in 1995, and became curator of the observatory's museum of astronomy in 1996. Since 2004 she has been a research astronomer at the observatory, in charge of museum activities.^[3] She has also been an adjunct astronomer with the Vatican Observatory since approximately 2009.^[2]

Chinnici's books include:

• L'osseruatorio astronomico di Palermo, la storia e gli strumenti (with Giorgia Foder Serio, Flaccovio Ed., 1997)^[4]
• La carte du ciel: Correspondence inédite conservée dans les archives de l’Observatoire de Paris (edited, Paris Observatory, 1999)^[5]
• Alle origini dell'astrofisica italiana: Il carteggio Secchi–Tacchini 1861–1877 (with Antonella Gasperini, Fond. Giorgio Ronchi, 2013)^[6]
• Merz Telescopes: A global heritage worth preserving (edited, Springer, 2017)^[7]
• Decoding the Stars: A Biography of Angelo Secchi, Jesuit and Scientist (Brill, 2019)^[8]
• Angelo Secchi and Nineteenth Century Science: The Multidisciplinary Contributions of a Pioneer and Innovator (edited with Guy Consolmagno, Springer, 2021)

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