[mmaimcal] Appointment of ALMA Director

[Alwyn Wootten]

Appointment of ALMA Director



The ALMA Board is pleased to announce that Dr. Thijs de Graauw of the
Netherlands
has been appointed Director of the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter
Array
(ALMA).  Dr. de Graauw's appointment follows a search by an international
committee.

Dr. Thijs de Graauw is a world expert in infrared and sub-millimeter
astronomy.  He has
considerable experience in coordinating and leading large international
scientific
projects. In particular, he was the Principal Investigator of the
successful Short
Wavelength Spectrometer that flew on the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO)
and is
currently the Principal Investigator of the Heterodyne Instrument for the
Far-Infrared
(HIFI) on the Herschel Satellite which is to be launched in 2009.

Dr. de Graauw has been serving as Interim ALMA Director since April 1st,
2008.  Before
joining ALMA, he was a professor at Leiden University.  At the Netherlands
Institute for
Space Research (SRON), he was responsible for the infrared and sub-millimeter
research program.

The Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA), an international
astronomy
facility, is a partnership of Europe, Japan and North America in
cooperation with the
Republic of Chile.  The ALMA Board, consisting of members representing the
partners,
has created the Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) in Chile. The JAO is
responsible for the
overall leadership and management of construction, commissioning and
operations of
ALMA. ALMA is funded in Europe by the European Organization for Astronomical
Research in the Southern Hemisphere, in Japan by the National Institutes
of Natural
Sciences (NINS) in cooperation with the Academia Sinica in Taiwan and in
North
America by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in cooperation with
the National
Research Council of Canada (NRC).  ALMA construction and operations are
led on
behalf of Europe by ESO, on behalf of Japan by the National Astronomical
Observatory
of Japan (NAOJ) and on behalf of North America by the National Radio
Astronomy
Observatory (NRAO), which is managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI).