On September 5, President of CONICYT (Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica de Chile: National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research of Chile) Dr. José Miguel Aguilera Radic and five others visited the NAOJ Mitaka and took a lab tour to the NAOJ Advanced Technology Center (ATC), ALMA Building, and 4D2U Theater.

CONICYT is the national funding agency for scientific and technological research in Chile, which promotes many research projects related to astronomy and others and provides support for young researchers. Chile provides many observation sites for a wide variety of international telescopes, one of which is the ALMA Telescope. In future perspectives, CONICYT intends to further improve Chilean national scientific research and equipment development capability.

CONICYT President Dr. Aguilera and Dr. Mónica Rubio, a professor of astronomy at the University of Chile and CONICYT Director of Astronomy seemed to be strongly impressed by high-precision machining at the ATC Mechanical Engineering Shop and microfabrication of a superconducting device which is the heart of the ALMA receiver. They asked many questions about the mechanism of the machining equipment in operation and the accuracy of machined parts.

The picture shows CONICYT President Dr. Aguilera (fourth from right) and other members visiting the ALMA Band 10 laboratory of the NAOJ Advanced Technology Center (ATC).