NAOJ Director General Mamoru Doi (left) and KASI President Jang-Hyun Park (right) (credit: KASI).

The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) have signed an amendment to their Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) originally concluded in 2014, aiming to enhance the security and depth of their cutting-edge research collaboration.

On October 23, 2025, NAOJ Director General Mamoru Doi, ALMA Project Director Satoru Iguchi, and Acting ALMA Program Manager George Kosugi visited KASI for the signing ceremony. The amendment reflects the need to reinforce secure collaboration in light of global trends, ensuring that sensitive data and intellectual property are protected. Beyond the formal signing, the visit featured in-depth discussions with KASI’s leadership and researchers. The meetings reviewed past achievements from the research collaboration and shared the progress of the Total Power GPU Spectrometer (TPGS), which is currently being co-developed under this agreement and represents one of East Asia’s major contributions to ALMA2’s Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade (WSU). They also actively explored new opportunities for collaboration that will be essential in the ALMA2 era.

From left to right: Head of the SKA and ALMA Center in KASI Bong-Won Sohn, Director of Observational Infrastructure Research Se-Jin Oh, NAOJ Acting ALMA Project Manager George Kosugi, NAOJ ALMA Project Director Satoru Iguchi, NAOJ Director General Mamoru Doi, KASI President Jang-Hyun Park, Vice President Young-Jun Choi, Principal Investigator of the Korean ALMA project Jongsoo Kim, and Director of Future Strategy Research Kyoung-Suk Lee. (Credit: KASI)

Links:

NAOJ and KASI Sign Agreement on ALMA
Development of Total Power GPU Spectrometer was approved by ALMA Board