Having trouble viewing? Click here to view as webpage

October 16, 2020

“Having two disparate points of view is ultimately the way of finding a more creative solution. What I hope ultimately is having a better collaboration between the scientific community and the native Hawaiians will help us arrive at a solution that's right for all of humanity.” Andrea Ghez

Nobel Prize Winner Talks About TMT Challenges  By SCIENCE FRIDAY •  Nobel Prize winning astronomer Andrea Ghez says she hopes to work through issues surrounding the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea. Ghez shared this year’s Nobel Prize in physics for her work identifying a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.  She did the research using the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, a facility she began working with more than 25 years ago. She told Science Friday that “hard conversations” are needed to address the “complicated and thorny” issues on the mountain. “Having two disparate points of view is ultimately the way of finding a more creative solution. What I hope ultimately is having a better collaboration between the scientific community and the native Hawaiians will help us arrive at a solution that's right for all of humanity.” Last year, Ghez’s work at Keck Observatory was interrupted by protests. The builders of the TMT project say work will not resume until at least next summer.  The entire interview with Dr. Ghez aired today at 1 p.m. on Science Friday on HPR-1. It also streams on hawaiipublicradio.org and on the mobile app.

TMT The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) Project has been developed as collaboration among Caltech, the University of California (UC), the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy (ACURA), and the national institutes of Japan, China, and India with the goal to design, develop, construct, and operate a thirty-meter class telescope and observatory on Maunakea in cooperation with the University of Hawaii (TMT Project). The TMT International Observatory LLC (TIO), a non-profit organization, was established in May 2014 to carry out the construction and operation phases of the TMT Project. The Members of TIO are Caltech, UC, the National Institutes of Natural Sciences of Japan, the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Department of Science and Technology of India, and the National Research Council (Canada); the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) is a TIO Associate. Major funding has been provided by the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation. For more information about the TMT project, visit tmt.org, or follow @TMTHawaii.

Sandra Dawson TMT Manager, Hawaii Community Affairs 808-934-0160 [email protected]

Thirty Meter Telescope  111 Nowelo Street, Hilo, HI 96720 Phone (808) 284-9922

Contact Us ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌