The Thirty Meter Telescope: A new window to the Universe

International astronomy groups have  planned to build the next generation optical and infrared telescopes with primary mirror sizes ranging from 24m to 40m.  National Institutes and  organizations in the USA, Japan, Canada, China, and India  joined together to build the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) International Observatory (TIO) atop  Mauna Kea, a dormant volcanic mountain, Hawaii, USA, which is one of the best astronomical sites in the world. TMT primary consists of 492 segments each measuring 1.44m diameter. India's participation in the project is mostly through in-kind contribution by developing some of the key systems of the project. In this talk, the speaker will briefly describe efforts leading to our membership in the project including technology demonstration and current status of the project.

About Dr. Eswar Reddy:

Dr. Eswar Reddy did his M.Sc (1988-90) from Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati and Ph.D (1990-96) from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru. Thereafter, he moved to the United States and spent four years at the University of Texas, Austin and two years at Valparaiso University, Indiana.  He is interested in understanding the nucelosythesis aspects in stars and formation, and evolution scenarios of the Galaxy using chemical tagging of stars in the solar neighbourhood.  In 2003, he returned to join  IIA, Bengaluru, as a regular faculty member. Currently, he is  an Associate Professor at IIA.   For the last 6 years he has been the national coordinator for India TMT efforts and later (2012 - to present) the programme director of India TMT Coordination Center set up jointly by DST and DAE.