From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4@msn.com)
Date: Thu Nov 14 2002 - 07:37:50 PST
----- Original Message -----
From: cunews@cornell.edu
Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2002 6:05 PM
To: CUNEWS-CAMPUS-L@cornell.edu
Subject: Cornell News: Atacama telescope gift
Cornell alumnus to help fund "ambitious program" to build infrared
telescope in the high Chilean Andes
FOR RELEASE: Nov. 13, 2002
Contact: David Brand
Office: 607-255-3651
E-mail: deb27@cornell.edu
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University alumnus Fred Young, a retired
Racine, Wis., businessman and longtime follower of astronomy, has
given $250,000 for the study phase of a proposed infrared telescope,
planned for the Atacama desert in the high Andes of northern Chile.
Young said he will provide a further $250,000 for the Atacama project
if by next year substantial progress has been made toward
establishing a firm partnership that will lead to the construction of
the telescope within a decade. The telescope, estimated to cost more
than $100 million, would be built entirely with private funds from
Cornell and other sources, although it is expected that its operation
will involve federal funds.
"This is a great shot in the arm for the project," says Riccardo
Giovanelli, professor of astronomy at Cornell and chief investigator
for the project. "Fred's support and enthusiasm give us much optimism
for the future of the project."
This is Young's second substantial gift to Cornell. He has made a
major commitment to Duffield Hall, the nanotechnology research
building now being constructed on the Cornell Engineering Quad. The
building's spectacular cantilevered colloquium room is to be named
for him.
Young, who obtained three degrees at Cornell between 1964 and 1966,
has been interested in astronomy since he was a child. Three years
ago he joined the Cornell Department of Astronomy alumni group,
Friends of Astronomy. "I view astronomy-cosmology as the ultimate
context for any study," he says. "It puts human evolution and
modernity into perspective -- important to us, but a very small part
of space and time."
The Atacama telescope, to be situated in one of the driest regions of
the Earth and above the water vapor that normally interferes with the
propagation of infrared radiation, will have the ability "to resolve
planets in other solar systems, pierce the Milky Way to see the
effects of its million solar-mass black hole center and study highly
red-shifted sources in the distant-most parts of the universe" says
Young. "It's very worthwhile to me to be associated with such an
ambitious program."
Young earned his Cornell bachelor's degree in engineering in 1964,
his master's in 1965 and his MBA in 1966. He retired in 1999 as
president and owner of Young Radiator Company in Racine when he sold
his company to Wabtec. The company designs and manufactures
radiators and heat exchangers for heavy duty applications such as
locomotives, construction equipment, military vehicles and diesel
generator sets. He has long been involved in Cornell affairs and was
on the board of the Cornell Society of Engineers in 1983 and 1984.
Giovanelli says the Atacama project is moving forward, and "we are
talking with a number of prospective partners and we hope a
partnership will be established for the study phase in the spring of
2003." Among the institutions interested in a partnership is the
National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded National Optical Astronomy
Observatory, which is discussing the possibility of operating the
Atacama telescope for at least a decade in exchange for a share of
the use of the telescope.
Before Young's gift, the project had received about one-third of a
million dollars in financing from the Cornell astronomy department,
the Cornell provost's office and the NSF, which has paid for
site-survey work. "We understand the characteristics of the region
very well, but we are deferring a final decision on the site until
ongoing tests are completed; they include hydrodynamical computer
simulations of the airflow as well as site measurements," says
Giovanelli.
The next step of the project will be to complete the study phase and
to firm up the partnership. Then the partners must find the resources
to finance the detailed engineering and development phase, which is
likely to cost 10 percent to 20 percent of the total cost of the
project and take until the end of 2007. Construction would follow
and take about four years, "at the most optimistic," says Giovanelli.
-30-
The web version of this release may be found at
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Nov02/Atacama.gift.deb.html
Cornell University News Service
Surge 3
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
607-255-4206
cunews@cornell.edu
http://www.news.cornell.edu
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Thu Nov 14 2002 - 07:59:10 PST