Project Office News
   ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba! TMT Visits Mexico

Dr. David Silva, the TMT Observatory Scientist, discussed the TMT project with several scientific groups in Chile this month. Silva presented project overviews at Universidad de Chile and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and in La Serena to the staff of the AURA and Gemini offices there.

The Chilean audiences, which included a number of very interested students at the two universities, asked lots of questions about all areas of the TMT including its science goals and instruments, its design and operations, and the project schedule.

In addition to being the Observatory Scientist, Dave is an AURA scientist and the Acting Head of the TMT Operations Design Department. Because of his involvement with the Very Large Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array projects during his tenure at the European Southern Observatory, Dave has many connections with the local and international astronomy communities in Chile. In fact, his traveling companions, Paul Gillette, TMT Site Selection Manager, and Sandra Dawson, Site Selection Studies Lead, were struck by the fact that Dave met someone he knew at each airport on every leg of the trip!