Director's Message

Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue39 1–30 April 2023

Welcome to the April Lunations. It’s exciting and a pleasure to have arrived in RSAA and started as Director. I have been here a week now and I am spending much of this first month meeting with people to learn the breadth of RSAA activities and aspirations. It is inspiring to hear about so many exciting projects.  The Dean is also introducing me to many members of the broader University leadership. I attended the VCs town hall for the College of Science and it was great to see a number of RSAA members also there to hear Brian’s vision for the ANU in the coming year. Over the summer I took the opportunity to visit SSO. I enjoyed meeting the staff, and even participated in an instrument change. 

The last month has seen two significant milestones for RSAA projects. First the MAVIS team successfully passed the MAVIS Preliminary Design Review at ESO. The quality of the documentation, as well as the collaborative spirit and the professionalism of the MAVIS team, was praised by the ESO review board. This is a major accomplishment and paves the way to the Final Design and a first light at the end of this decade. Congratulations to Francois and all colleagues on this milestone. Also in the past month, we have seen implementation of fully unsupervised observing on the newly automated 2.3m, including observations from six different proposals in the first night. Congratulations to Ian Price and Jon Nielsen. 

Last week I enjoyed the Easter egg hunt and seeing a large turnout for morning tea. Thanks to the person who strategically placed an egg token behind my name plate. I am looking forward to meeting many more RSAA people in the coming weeks. Come and say hi when you see me at coffee or lunch!

I want to finish by extending my thanks to Naomi for her leadership of the School over the past 4 months as interim director. 

Stuart Wyithe