AITC Update
Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue28 1–31 May 2022
There may now be a chill to the morning air around Canberra, but there is no cool down at the AITC. Our project portfolio is bulging, there is real a buzz of activity and we are looking to employ yet more staff. It feels more like spring than late autumn.
I would like to start with saying how grateful we are to our staff and students for their creativity, dedication, resilience in meeting - nay, smashing - the multitude of challenges over the past couple of years. I would also like to call out the really great support we are getting from our contractors: Andrew Kruse, Damien Jones, Fred Crous, Greg Smith, James Webb, Mike Ellis, Steve Ellis; ANU Enterprise and the wonderfully talented Jennifer Burgess and Phillipa Cox, who are deftly project managing our flagship projects; and our latest, but by no means least addition to our team, David Ashworth. The good news for all those that may feel somewhat besieged by the amount of AITC project work we have at present is that further help is on the way. The next few weeks will see the launch of a major AITC recruitment for up to ten new women-only positions, including: instrument scientists; detector, electronics and controls engineers; mechanical engineers; optical engineers; software engineers and system engineers. If you know of people/networks that might be interested, please spread the good word and watch the ANU jobs pages (http://www.anu.edu.au/jobs) in June.
Other staffing news is the launch of a proposal for a new technical professional staff career structure at the ANU, the main aim of which is to develop a structure and career progression processes that more closely resemble the ANU academic staff stream with the hope it may be adopted as part of the next ANU enterprise agreement. Representatives from the RSAA working group that drafted the proposal expect to be presenting an overview to RSAA and ANU Schools and Colleges over the coming weeks.
Last month saw two funding submissions related to our flagship Giant Magellan Telescope (https://giantmagellan.org) program and one for a major new project of potential immense strategic importance to Australian/European ground-based astronomy. The former were proposals as part of the large US National Science Foundation funding bid by the GMT consortium, one to complete Giant Magellan Telescope Integral-Field Spectrograph (GMTIFS; https://rsaa.anu.edu.au/research/established-projects/giant-magellan-telescope-integral-field-spectrograph-gmtifs) led by Rob Sharp and the other to complete the Laser Tomography Adaptive Optics system for GMT (LTAO; https://rsaa.anu.edu.au/research/established-projects/laser-tomography-adaptive-optics-subsystem-gmt) led by Celine D’Orgeville. The latter submission by Australia’s national capability for optical astronomy instrumentation, the Astralis consortium (https://astralis.org.au) is an exciting new joint European/Australian proposal to undertake a concept study for a new 10-metre-class European Widefield Spectroscopic Telescope (WST) that will include major engagement by Australian industry for the telescope structure and telescope enclosure construction. The ANU contributions to WST are led by Matthew Colless, with WST work packages for the telescope and enclosure led by Tony Travouillon and for the telescope control system led by Ian Price. There will also be additional AITC contributions to the WST spectrograph data reduction, data archive and detector systems.
Other ongoing activities for the busy bees of the AITC hive are: the finalisation of the AITC five-year strategic plan, including a review of the AITC operational model in the context of the volatile business environment; developing a laboratory and office space plan to accommodate the new staff, students and project activities; and the sensitive relocation of wildlife that appear to be taking advantage of the warm and comfortable environment with the AITC building now the autumnal temperatures have arrived.
Ever onwards with gusto!
Roger Haynes
