In September 2017, Alvaro Gonzalez, an assistant professor at the NAOJ Chile Observatory, won the Young Scientist Award at the IEEE Radio and Antenna Days of the Indian Ocean (RADIO) 2017 held in the Republic of South Africa.

Alvaro Gonzalez receiving a trophy (middle)
Credit: NAOJ

The IEEE RADIO is a series of international conferences for the advancement of radio technology and related theoretical study held in the Indian Ocean region. The fifth edition of the IEEE RADIO was held in Cape Town, South Africa.

At this conference, Alvaro Gonzalez gave a presentation on the optical design of the ALMA Band 2+ (67-95 GHz) Receiver, which was highly evaluated and brought him the award. The preliminary design of the Band 2+ Receiver was performed by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in collaboration with NAOJ, to cover a frequency range unobservable with the current capabilities of ALMA. Alvaro has contributed the design of the receiver optics components, which guide the radio signals from the antenna to the receiver (e.g. a plastic lens to re-focus the radiation from astronomical sources and the horn to collect these radio waves).

The award winner Alvaro said, “The band 2+ receiver optics are a good example of the design work we have been doing at NAOJ in past years for the design of optics for the band 1, 2+ and 2+3 receivers in collaboration with different institutes. I am humbled to receive this prize and hope that some of these ideas and designs can be implemented in ALMA in the near future to further improve the science capabilities of the telescope”.