Faculty will contribute expertise in astrophysics, engineering and artificial intelligence
Launching in the 2030s, the Giant Magellan Telescope will be the world’s most powerful optical telescope. This rendering shows the exterior telescope at nighttime with support site buildings in the foreground. Image by Giant Magellan Telescope – GMTO Corporation.
Northwestern University officially is a founding partner of the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), an enormous ground-based telescope currently under construction in Chile’s Atacama Desert.
Launching in the 2030s, GMT will be the world’s most powerful optical telescope. By producing images 10 times clearer than the Hubble Space Telescope, GMT will explore the distant universe, including the search for signs of life outside Earth’s solar system.
As a partner, Northwestern will contribute its expertise in astrophysics, artificial intelligence (AI) and engineering. Specifically, Northwestern researchers will develop and apply AI tools to enhance GMT’s abilities to search for Earth-like planets across the Milky Way, probe the universe’s most energetic explosions and explore the relationship between galaxies and black holes.
Northwestern already leads the world-renowned Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) and the newly established National Science Foundation (NSF)-Simons Foundation AI Institute for the Sky (SkAI, pronounced “sky”). The new GMT partnership will further expand opportunities for faculty and students across Northwestern.
“Northwestern’s commitment to interdisciplinary research — particularly in astrophysics, AI, data science and engineering — positions us to lead the next wave of astronomical research,” Northwestern President Michael H. Schill said. “Our full partnership with the Giant Magellan Telescope Consortium is a testament to this vision. I am especially grateful for Vicky Kalogera’s leadership and efforts to secure this partnership. This collaboration will provide unparalleled opportunities for our students and faculty to push the boundaries of research and innovation as we seek to understand the universe.”
“I am thrilled Northwestern has reached a full partnership agreement with the Giant Magellan Telescope, which will be at the top of our field through the end of the century,” Kalogera said. “The telescope is poised to change our understanding of the universe and our place within it, offering tremendous opportunities to our students and faculty. We are excited to be a part of this historic effort.”
Kalogera is the Daniel I. Linzer Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. She also is director of CIERA and the SkAI Institute.
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