ALMA signs partnership agreement with Universidad de la Frontera
20 October, 2014 / Read time: 3 minutes
With plans to undertake joint engineering and science projects, the Director of ALMA Observatory, Pierre Cox, and the Rector of Universidad de la Frontera (UFRO), Sergio Bravo, today signed a memorandum of understanding at the university's Andrés Bello Integrated Campus in Temuco.
The agreement has been a goal for the two institutions since Cox visited the university last year, which was followed by a visit to the observatory by UFRO academics and officials.
"ALMA has close relationships with universities in Chile and these ties are the basis of joint projects that promote the development of highly qualified professionals who may lead astronomical projects in the future," said Cox.
Fig 1. UFRO’s Rector Sergio Bravo Escobar (left) and ALMA director, Pierre Cox (right), signed the partnership agreement. Credit: UFRO's Public Relations Department
Universidad de La Frontera is a state institution of higher education that is considered one of the top 10 universities in the Rectors Council of Chile. According to its Rector Sergio Bravo, "Formalizing these ties with ALMA is a valuable opportunity to strengthen professional training for our engineering students. It also opens up opportunities for internships and multidisciplinary projects of mutual interest in diverse areas such as electronics, mechatronics, data management, astroinformatics, physics, and others, generating new lines of development and very enriching possibilities for both institutions. This will contribute greatly to the scientific and technological development of the Araucanía Region and the country."
Under this agreement, the two institutions will implement collaborative projects to support summer internships, engineering degrees and/or engineering research. They will also promote informal exchange of information and other projects of mutual interest.
Fig 2. From left to right: UFRO’s Rector Sergio Bravo; ALMA Director, Pierre Cox; Dean of the UFRO’s Engineer and Science Faculty, Cristian Bornhardt; Head of the ALMA Department of Computing, Jorge Ibsen, and ALMA engineer and former UFRO student, Jaime Guarda. Credit: UFRO's Public Relations Department
More Information
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded in Europe by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), in North America by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC) and in East Asia by the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan. ALMA construction and operations are led on behalf of Europe by ESO, on behalf of North America by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), which is managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) and on behalf of East Asia by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.
Contact:
Valeria Foncea
Education and Public Outreach Officer
Joint ALMA Observatory
Santiago, Chile
Tel: +56 2 467 6258
Cell: +56 9 75871963
Email: [email protected]
