A special presentation on the International Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) was held on the occasion of the visit of Director-General Prof. Philip Diamond at the British Embassy Tokyo on March 27.
Since the beginning, Japan has indicated its interest to join SKAO, however negotiations are rather on the slower side. Prof. Hideyuki Kobayashi of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), represented the country in its activities for scientific contributions.
The active participation of Switzerland was also highlighted by Kyoko Marumo Suzuki, Head of the S&T Office Tokyo who gave closing remarks together with S&TDC co-chair Marianne Støren Berg.
Separately, in March, the Swiss scientific delegate, Prof. Jean-Paul Kneib from EPFL had a meeting with Prof. Kobyahashi of NAOJ to discuss potentials for collaboration.
The event opened with welcoming remarks by Marie-Louise Taylor and Ghaleeb Jeppie from the UK and South African Embassies as co-organizers. Then Prof. Philip Diamond presented the international and intergovernmental project from the onset to its ongoing implementation: the world’s largest and most sensitive radio-telescope will be built in the outbacks of Australia and South Africa, and connected with the SKAO headquarters in the United Kingdom. 16 countries are engaged in the large-scale endeavor that aims at further overserving the universe and find answers in the disciplines of astrophysics, cosmology, and fundamental physics. The networking session which followed, gave the members the opportunity to exchange with each other as well as a group of academic representatives from Japan with the wonderful view of the cherry blossoms in full bloom.