Annual Report 2011 Facts and Figures of 2011
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Annual report 2011 Facts and figures of 2011 3 Awards or grants 112 refereed articles 157 employees 9 press releases Funding: € 30.446.230 Expenditure: € 30.482.073 Balance: € -35.843 Contents Director’s report 3 ASTRON in brief 5 Performance indicators 9 Astronomy Group 13 Radio Observatory 21 R&D Laboratory 27 Connected legal entities 33 NOVA Optical/ Infrared Instrumentation Group 35 JIVE 39 Outreach and Education 43 Appendix 1: Financial summary 53 Appendix 2: Personnel highlights 54 Appendix 3: Board, Committees and Staff 56 Appendix 4: Publications 58 Appendix 5: Earning capacity 76 Appendix 6: Abbreviations 78 Cover photo: impression of the dense aperture arrays for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). Credits: Swinburne Astronomy Productions. 2 ASTRON Annual report 2011 Report 2011 was another great year for ASTRON. The highlight was undoubtedly the evaluation of the institute by a panel of international experts, chaired by Prof. Catherine Cesarsky. The panel judged ASTRON to be excellent in all possible categories - at the overall institute level and in each of our departments - Astronomy Group, Radio Observatory and Research &Development. Director’s In this year, the output in astronomy continued its enviable track-record in doubling research continued to grow - not only in the base budget received from NWO through terms of publications and impact, but also competitive grants and contracts - maintaining in connecting ASTRON to the outside world, this approach will be key to ASTRON’s future and in particular NOVA and the university success, especially in the coming years. Outwith groups in the Netherlands. LOFAR began ASTRON, the SKA project made progress with to produce its first scientific results and leaps and bounds. The SKA Organisation was preparations for the APERTIF upgrade to established as a company under UK law with the WSRT began to ramp up. With LOFAR, the Netherlands, UK, Italy, China, Canada, South APERTIF and EMBRACE, ASTRON clearly Africa, Australia and New Zealand all signing up. demonstrated the application and relevance In addition, the SKA Site Advisory Committee of aperture array technology for radio started its work with the expectation of astronomy - in the words of the chair of our reporting in early next year. 2012 already looks evaluation panel: ‘ASTRON is re-inventing to be as exciting a year as this one! radio astronomy’. That statement has become something of a motto for the institute, and Prof. Mike Garrett its is one that we maintain via the synergy we General Director enjoy between our fundamental science, our operations of world-class facilities and our strong technical R&D programme. Through this combination, ASTRON aims to also make a significant contribution to the governments Topsector Roadmaps for High Tech Systems & Materials and ICT. ASTRON has implemented this strategy within tight financial boundary conditions - in particular, the institute has 3 ASTRON Annual report 2011 ASTRON in brief 4 ASTRON Annual report 2011 ASTRON is the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy. Its main mission is to make discoveries in radio astronomy happen, via the development of new and innovative technologies, the operation of world-class radio astronomy facilities (the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope and the LOFAR telescope), and the pursuit of fundamental astronomical research. Engineers and astronomers at ASTRON have an outstanding international reputation for novel technology development, and fundamental research in galactic and extra-galactic astronomy. ASTRON hosts the Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE) and the Optical/Infrared instrumentation group of NOVA, the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy. The superterp which houses six LOFAR stations. Credits: Top-Foto, Assen. ASTRON is an institute of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, infrastructure that was needed to build NWO. this new radio telescope can also be radio ‘camera’ in the focal point of used by other applications. The common twelve of the dishes. This will increase Organisation & Governance theme throughout is the collection, the field of view of all the antennas by ASTRON is a Foundation under Dutch transport and real-time processing of a factor of almost forty. Astronomers Law with an oversight Board. Executive enormous quantities of data from sensors can thus quickly survey large parts of the authority is vested in the directorate distributed over a large area. sky, leading to a dramatic increase of consisting of Prof. dr. Michael Garrett, the discovery space. With APERTIF, the Scientific Director and Director General, LOFAR will address some of the WSRT will be once more brought to the and dr. Marco de Vos, Managing Director most important questions in modern forefront of radio-astronomical facilities. and Deputy DG. They report to both astronomy and astrophysics. The key the ASTRON Board and the Director of science projects are: Astronomy Group NWO. NWO is also the formal employer • The Epoch of Reionization The Astronomy Group is engaged in of ASTRON staff. • Deep tragalactic survey many frontline research areas. Hydrogen • Transient sources and pulsars is studied both nearby and in the most The ASTRON Director General is advised • Ultra high energy cosmic rays distant parts of the Universe. The by an international Science Advisory • Solar science and space weather Transient Universe is characterized at Committee (SAC) on all aspects of the • Cosmic magnetism the shortest possible time-scales. The institute’s programme. A telescope Magnetic Universe is studied from Programme Committee sets priorities for The Westerbork Synthesis Radio galaxies to clusters. allocating observing time on ASTRON’s Telescope telescopes. ASTRON operates the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT). The WSRT has The ASTRON Management Team consist been built in 1969-1970 and had a major of the directorate and department heads. upgrade in 1990-2003. The WSRT is one of the most sensitive radio telescopes in the The International LOFAR Telescope world and offers astronomers the chance ASTRON designed and built the LOFAR to study a wide variety of astrophysics telescope. LOFAR, the Low Frequency problems. The telescope consists of Array, operates at the lowest frequencies fourteen parabolic (dish) antennas of that can be observed from Earth. With 25-metre in diameter. LOFAR astronomers can look back billions of years to a time before the In the APERTIF project, advanced first stars and galaxies were formed, receiver technology is developed for The Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope. the so-called ‘Dark Ages’. Much of the the WSRT, creating a two-dimensional 5 ASTRON Annual report 2011 The group is involved in the commissioning of LOFAR and in all LOFAR key science projects, as well as in the development of other new instruments like the pulsar machine PuMa-II and the APERTIF system mentioned above. Research & Development laboratories The ASTRON Research & Development (R&D) laboratories focus on innovative instruments for existing telescopes, such as the Westerbork telescope and LOFAR, as well as on developing technologies for future observing facilities, such as the Square Kilometre Array. The technical laboratory has several unique facilities at its disposal, such as an anechoic chamber, a clean room facility, and an outdoor antenna test location. These serve both research, development of astronomical Array of small antennas in the EMBRACE demonstrator to replace moving dishes. instruments and other product development. Technology Transfer From the perspective of the Top sectors Target areas in R&D for the Square ASTRON implements its mission in such in the Netherlands a project such as the Kilometre Array are Smart Antennas a way that the benefit for industry and Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is primarily (Aperture Arrays and Phased Array Feeds) society is maximised. Partnerships in large an international technology programme and Science Data Processing (Calibration development projects are a key aspect of based on a challenging case: a global and Data Intensive Computing). ASTRON’s Technology Transfer strategy. consortium to build the world’s largest ASTRON is a top international research and most sensitive radio telescope. The R&D department is organized along institute and as such offers its partners Such a ‘Big Science PPP’ (Public-Private the main disciplines: antennas, low noise access to knowledge, expertise and Partnership) offers unique possibilities systems, digital and embedded signal networks. for technology development and human processing, computing, mechanics and capital development. system design and integration. The ASTRON organisation in 2011 General Affairs Astronomy Group Marco de Vos Raffaella Morganti Scientific director / Director general Michael Garrett Finance, Planning & Control Radio Observatory Janneke Wubs Rene Vermeulen Managing director / Deputy director general Marco de Vos Personnel Research & Development Diana Verweij Management team Albert-Jan Boonstra Raffaella Morganti Rene Vermeulen Albert-Jan Boonstra Staff NOVA Michiel van Haarlem Ramon Navarro Arnold van Ardenne Management Assistant Truus van den Brink Diana van Dijk The ASTRON organisation in 2011. 6 ASTRON Annual report 2011 Some of the first LOFAR science results, presented at the LOFAR Early science workshop on 14 and 15 September 2011. Performance indicators 7 ASTRON Annual report 2011 Publications The chart shows the number of publications, refereed journals and other output in 2011. Legend: Refereed articles: