NAOJ has recently signed an agreement with University of Chile / UNTEC (Foundation for Technological Transfer) for the production of hardware components for the ALMA Band 2 receiver. The ALMA Band 2 receiver is a development project led by ESO with the support of NAOJ. NAOJ will deliver the receivers optics, which consists of plastic lenses, feedhorn antennas and other waveguide components. University de Chile will produce the ALMA Band 2 lenses, following the successful collaboration established during the production of ALMA Band 1 receivers. Universidad de Chile / UNTEC successfully fabricated and delivered to NAOJ the lenses which are used for the ALMA Band 1 receiver, among others. As in that case, state-of-the-art technology produced in Chile will be delivered to ALMA by NAOJ.

On November 22nd, NAOJ Director General Prof. Saku Tsuneta, NAOJ ALMA Project Director Prof. Alvaro Gonzalez, and NAOJ Legal Representative in Chile Mr. Teruyuki Watanabe paid a courtesy visit to the Dean of the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Mathematics of University of Chile, and a delegation of the Department of Astronomy and UNTEC. During the visit, past and present collaboration between NAOJ and University of Chile, including the recent ALMA Band 2 collaboration agreement, was reviewed and future initiatives were discussed. The NAOJ delegation were greeted with a piano performance of Japanese composer Isao Matsushita by a University of Chile engineer. Some photographs were taken to commemorate the latest collaboration agreement. The visit concluded with a visit to the Space and Planetary Exploration Laboratory (SPEL) where the NAOJ delegation could see the latest work in nanosatellite development at University of Chile.

Credit: Universidad de Chile