On TMT’s website, the ISDT researchers are said to be responsible for providing scientific guidance and feedback, stimulating planning for future TMT observing programs, and building connections between the TMT and international community. UVic researchers Julio Navarro, Kim Venn, and Roubing Dong are members of the TMT International Science Development Team (ISDT).

“ violates human rights by desecrating the sacred sites of Indigenous peoples, displacing them from their homelands, and conducting scientific research upon their relations without consent.” Morgan Mowatt NFIRAOS is scheduled to be completed in 2024. In 2016, Saanich News penned an article about Simard, and 55 other astronomers, physicists, and engineers that work in the National Research Centre on Observatory Hill on the development of a lens dubbed the “heart of the TMT.” The team has helped to create the Narrow-Field Infrared Adaptive Optics System (NFIRAOS), Canada’s greatest contribution to TMT. Luc Simard, an adjunct professor at UVic, is the TMT Science Instruments group leader, and one of several other Victoria-based researchers that played critical roles in the creation of the telescope. Mauna Kea was chosen in 2009 after a five-year campaign to find a location for the TMT.Due to public pushback the International Observatory Board is currently looking into a “Plan B” location in the Canary Islands.Īlthough UVic has no research contracts with TMT, several UVic researchers in astronomy and astrophysics have worked on specific technological aspects of the project. One source within UVic Public Relations said that technology could be used in a Thirty-Meter Telescope located anywhere in the world. The TMT is the first of a new, extremely large type of telescope, which is expected to take images 12 times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope. In the midst of the controversy surrounding this project both internationally and locally, we’ve summarized the important local context for the TMT, and the recent reaction.

We’ve broken down the influence that Victoria - and UVic in particular - has on this project, what stake they continue to hold in the TMT, and the community response that has unfolded over the past few weeks. Since Canada announced funding for the TMT in 2015, Victoria has held a crucial role in the creation of the telescope. However, more than 2 000 protesters have blocked the road leading up Mauna Kea, Hawaii’s largest mountain, over the last few weeks. Hawaiians see the land atop Mauna Kea as sacred, rich with history, and believed to be an origin point of the first Hawaiians, while scientists see the 4 207 metre mountain as a prime location to dig into the vast crevasses of outer space.Ĭurrently, there are 12 telescopes already built on Mauna Kea, but protesters have battled the TMT project - which, if completed, would be the world’s largest telescope - for years.Ĭonstruction of the TMT was set to begin earlier this month. The University of Victoria has come under fire from alumni, students, faculty, and the UVSS Board of Directors for its connection to the proposed construction of the controversial Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on the sacred grounds of Mauna Kea, Hawaii. University posts press release reaffirmed commitment to reconciliation after the UVSS passed motion to condemn involvement with project taking place on sacred land of Indigenous Hawaiians The James Clark Maxwell Telescope on Mauna Kea, one of 13 already built on the mountain.

University of hawaii telescope