Associated Universities, Inc. unites the resources of universities, research organizations and the Federal Government in the planning, construction, and operation of forefront scientific facilities that promote discovery and education while expanding our knowledge of the physical world.
Portfolio Review
Community Forum
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Victoria Kaspi, FRS, FRSC, Professor of Physics, Canada Research Chair, Lorne Trottier Chair, McGill University
Posted on: April 11, 2013
The Green Bank Telescope is a relatively new, world-class instrument in its prime, doing extremely high impact science. I'd have thought it would be lauded rather than recommended for divestment. While fully recognizing budgetary constraints it is also important to recognize existing and up-and-coming excellence; the NANOGrav program, heavily and critically reliant on the GBT, is a great example of world-class Nobel-potential science being done now, but which would suffer significantly should the GBT be closed. Moreover, I am member of the Canadian astronomical community which signed with the US radio astronomy community the North American Partnership for Radio Astronomy in 2003. I am concerned by the unilateral decision by the US side to violate the spirit -- if not the letter -- of the NAPRA agreement by divesting from a key NAPRA resource. That doesn't seem like much of a "partnership" decision, especially after Canada fulfilled its full and costly $40 million commitment in building the JVLA correlator and financing significant portions of ALMA as part of NAPRA. The Canadian community makes very heavy use of the GBT and would obviously consultation on the telescope's future before decisions final are made.
