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International Colloquium on the Thirty Meter Telescope

As part of the 4th International Symposium on Photoelectronic Detection and Imaging (ISPDI 2011), May 24-26, 2011 in Beijing, China, scientists and engineers from the US and China are meeting for a special colloquium on the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). The colloquium is a milestone in the TMT international partnership for development and operation of TMT.

Collaborators from both countries will consider a wide range of technical, engineering and science components in the TMT plan, including specific contributions to TMT that are anticipated to be provided by China.

“TMT will be a global asset in the quest for knowledge about our universe, and this colloquium will showcase Chinese interest in building and joining this remarkable capability,” said Gary Sanders, TMT Project Manager.

Technical topics for discussion include aspects of fabricating segmented mirrors, laser assisted guide star adaptive optics, high performance science instruments, and management of cross disciplinary research. The program includes presentations from members from both the US and China collaborating institutes, including:

• Keynote: The Thirty Meter Telescope: Opening the Next Generation of Extremely Large Telescopes, Jerry Nelson (Project Scientist, TMT)
• TMT Construction and Operations, Gary Sanders (Project Manager, TMT)
• Optics for the Thirty Meter Telescope, Eric Williams (Telescope Optics Group Leader, TMT)
• The Secondary and Tertiary mirrors for the Thirty Meter Telescope, Virginia Ford (Senior Opto-Mechanical Engineer)
• The Progress of SMP on TMT Test Mirrors, Xinnan, Li (Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics and Technology, CAS)
• CIOMP Fabrication Plan for TMT Tertiary Mirror, Xuejun, Zhang/Ligong, Zheng (Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, CAS)
• The Design Improvement of TMT Laser Guiding Star Facility, Kai, Wei (The Institute of Optics and Electronics, CAS)
• The Prototype of TIPC Sodium Laser, Yong, Bo (Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, CAS)
• Feasibility Studies for the MOBIE Acquisition, Guiding, and Wavefront Sensing (AGWFS) subsystem, Zhongwen, Hu (Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics and Technology, CAS)

The colloquium is hosted by the National Astronomical Observatory of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and the Chinese Society of Astronautics - Optics and Mechanics committee.

Program sponsors come from a wide range of institutes and universities in China, including:

• Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics and Technology, CAS
• The Institute of Optics and Electronics, CAS
• Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics
• CAS Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, CAS
• Peking University
• Tsinghua University
• University of Science and Technology of China
• Nanjing University
• Shanghai Jiao Tong University

For more information, please see the ISPDI 2011 website: http://www.ispdiconf.org/en/index.html

In December 2010, China officially joined as an international observer in the TMT project. The TMT project is an international partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy, joined by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Department of Science and Technology of India.