The Workers at ALMA

Did you know that there are more engineers working at ALMA than there are astronomers? In fact, they are the overall majority: nearly 55% of our collaborators work in ALMA's Engineering Department and three quarters of the staff, 75%, work at the facilities located near San Pedro de Atacama in the north of Chile. The rest work at the central offices located in the municipality of Vitacura in Santiago, Chile.

Our staff has an average age of 43 years old and has worked at ALMA for the last 6 years. Among our workers, there are representatives of more than 10 nationalities and 40 of them have international contracts, though the great majority, 85%, have local contracts.

The level of education is also quite diverse. 39% have a professional degree, nearly 20% have a doctorate or postdoc to show for themselves, and 30% have technical studies.

These numbers show the diversity of ALMA staff, but what do they translate to on a more human level? Short videos, a little over a minute long, share the testimonies of some of these people who, from their different positions in the organization, make ALMA's scientific revolution possible. We invite you to view them here: