Next-generation telescope science highlighted at April workshop

Cooled by a gentle breeze and shaded by the native algorrobo trees overhanging the terrace of the La Casona restaurant in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, scientists from around the world listened, rapt, to presentations on the construction challenges, technical details and promise of scientific discovery of the innovative Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST). Many of them had been working on the telescope for more than a decade and the information shared at this workshop mattered: tomorrow they would visit the assembled telescope at its mountain top home for the first time, as part of FYST's formal inauguration April 9.

"This is the end of the beginning and the beginning of the time that we're going to utilize it, so it's kind of an intersection in life. It's a marvelous time," said Fred Young '64, M.Eng '66, MBA '66, after whom the telescope is named.

Workshop speakers emphasized the collaborative nature of the project along with FYST's technical innovations and breakthrough science. FYST is a project of the CCAT Observatory partnership, led by Cornell University and including Germany's University of Cologne, University of Bonn, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, a Canadian consortium of universities led by the University of Waterloo, and Duke University, in conjunction with Chilean astronomers through the University of Chile.

"Astronomy is one of the truly international and global fields of scientific endeavor. I don't know that there's another field that crosses so many borders and so many boundaries intellectually and politically," said Peter Loewen, the Harold Tanner Dean of Arts and Sciences, during a break in the inauguration events. "The important thing about FYST is that it takes a broader view, a bigger picture view of the universe in the relatively unexplored submillimeter window. And that's only possible because Fred Young shares this big vision and I'm just deeply, deeply grateful and inspired."

Read the full story on the College of Arts and Sciences website.