Statement from the Board about the ALMA Director

26 April, 2017 / Read time: 2 minutes

At its April 2017 meeting, the ALMA Board accepted the request of the ALMA Director, Dr. Pierre Cox to take a period of science leave.

The very substantial achievements under Pierre's leadership over the last 4 years are greatly appreciated. Pierre has led ALMA through the end of construction and commissioning and into the science phase, with a rich harvest of high profile science results, including breathtaking images in a range of astronomical areas. The extension of capability, where additional receiver bands and more observing modes progressively become available to the community, is making very good progress. ALMA is on track to reach steady state operations, with more available antennas and increased observing time within the next few years. The results obtained to date demonstrate that all the ambitious goals set when ALMA was approved will be fully met, and Pierre has launched a process to identify the highest priority directions for ALMA's development over the next 15 years. The Board is very grateful to Pierre for these, and his other accomplishments.

A search for the next ALMA Director was initiated in January 2017. In the meantime, Dr. Stuartt Corder will act as Director.

The ALMA Board

Additional information

ALMA is a partnership of ESO (representing its member states), NSF (USA) and NINS (Japan), together with NRC (Canada), NSC and ASIAA (Taiwan), and KASI (Republic of South Korea), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. The Joint ALMA Observatory is operated by ESO, AUI/NRAO and NAOJ.