Strong SKAO presence at the EAS 2021 meeting

One of the biggest events of the year for the astronomy community, the European Astronomical Society (EAS) Annual Meeting, was held from 28 June to 1 July, with more than 2,250 people from around the world registered for the week-long event. Originally planned as an in-person gathering hosted at Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands, the meeting was transformed once again into a fully virtual event due to the ongoing pandemic, while retaining its “EAS Leiden 2021” title.

Throughout the week, the SKAO was well represented in a wide range of sessions including a plenary talk by SKAO Director-General Prof. Philip Diamond. Following a project update, Prof. Diamond announced the SKAO’s big news: that the Council had voted to approve construction of the SKA telescopes (see elsewhere in this issue). That moment was followed by SKAO Council Chairperson Dr Catherine Cesarsky being presented with the prestigious American Institute of Physics Tate Medal, awarded biennially to non-US citizens in recognition of their leadership, research contributions, and service to the international physics community.

The packed schedule included 20 plenaries, over 1,100 talks, almost as many ePosters, and an array of virtual networking and social events, including a games night and musical performances. The programme was complemented by a Slack forum which enabled lively discussions to continue.

Alongside astronomy and data science talks from the SKAO’s Dr Rosie Bolton and Prof. Anna Scaife of the Operations team, and Dr Jeff Wagg from the Science team, more SKAO representatives gave presentations on wider topical issues surrounding astronomy. Federico Di Vruno presented the SKAO’s quantitative study of the impact of satellite mega-constellations on the SKA telescopes, while Director of Operations Dr Lewis Ball spoke about the Observatory’s commitment to sustainability in construction and operations, particularly in powering the telescopes. SKAO Communications Director William Garnier invited attendees to “forget the science” for a moment, highlighting the broader benefits of the SKA project and how socio-economic impact has become one of the main drivers for large-scale research infrastructures, while Communications Manager Mathieu Isidro spoke about the Observatory’s work to embed equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) principles in all its activities.

Those who attended the meeting can still access all the talks until 2 August 2021 via the event platform.