Recent SKA news

A brief recap of the big stories covered by the SKA Comms team in recent months

Since the last issue of Contact was published in early March, much has changed globally. On 17 March, SKA Global Headquarters was closed in line with guidance from the UK government on containing the COVID-19 pandemic. With the wellbeing of staff, their families and communities a priority, SKAO instructed all staff to work from home until further notice, with no domestic or international business travel to be undertaken.

A few weeks later our South African partners SARAO announced that they had been tasked with managing the national effort required for the local design, development, production and procurement of respiratory ventilators to support the government’s response to combat the pandemic there. The decision recognised the significant expertise and experience engineers and scientists have gained in the development of complex systems for the MeerKAT radio telescope, an SKA precursor facility. Many of the SKA’s partner institutions have been similarly involved in their respective countries.

While the pandemic dominated many conversations and headlines, there was positive news in the SKA world with the announcement that the Swiss science and technology university École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) had become the 14th member of the SKA Organisation. EPFL is the lead institution coordinating involvement in the SKA on behalf of the Swiss academic community.

SKA Director-General Prof. Philip Diamond also issued an update on the status of the SKA project, highlighting the progress that continues to be made despite current restrictions. “None of us can predict what the coming months will bring,” he wrote, “but, as one of the world’s major scientific endeavours, we hope to push forwards bringing employment, innovation and scientific exploration to benefit our partner countries.”

Head to our website at www.skatelescope.org to read these and more.

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