Dr Chandrasekhar highlights the importance of an astronomy science vision
India’s future projects such as Aditya-L1 solar space mission, the Indian Spectroscopic Space Telescope, National Large Solar Telescope and National Large Optical Telescope were discussed at a meeting of Indo-French Astronomy held 9-13 Jan 2023.
The meeting also discussed an upcoming international radio observatory to be located in South Africa and Australia in which both India and France are key partners.
It also discussed the collaborative Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer, which will be operational in the USA.
Around 100 scientists, engineers and students from India and France attended the meeting focused on ‘Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO)/ Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE) and multiwavelength synergies’.
The meeting was to establish a comprehensive long-term partnership in the field of astronomy as it also focused on international mega-projects and discussed science vision for the next decade.
The Indo-French Astronomy science vision for the next decade and multiwavelength synergy science in mega-projects were part of deliberations at the meeting, the Ministry of Science and Technology said on 17 Jan 2023.
DST secretary Dr S. Chandrasekhar, the chief guest of the conference, had highlighted the importance of an astronomy science vision for both countries to progress in the discipline at the meeting, hosted by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
“We want to be long-term reliable partners in all of the astronomy projects where our scientific, technical and infrastructure expertise are involved while maintaining the gender balance in higher academics and are doing our bit to ensure that larger objectives laid by both the Governments are achieved,” said Dr Mamta Pommier from the University of Montpellier, France. fiinews.com
