On 10 June a symposium began, celebrating the achievements and passion for astronomy of professor George Miley, founder of the Universe Awareness project and renowned radio astronomer. The 4-day symposium, titled ‘Astronomy, Radio Sources and Society – the Wonderful Century’, is being held in the oldest theatre of the Netherlands, the beautiful ‘Leidse Schouwburg’ (Leiden Theatre). The event attracted around 250 astronomers, communicators, policy makers and George’s friends from all over the world.
During the day a prestigious array of speakers discussed why society should fund large-scale astronomy projects such as LOFAR, ALMA, SKA and JWST; lessons learned from past projects and public interest in astronomy. This was followed by a cultural soirée with entertainment from ‘Keys to the Stars’, a project combining 4-hand piano music with astronomy. The evening also featured the launch of an exciting new children’s book from Leopold/EU-UNAWE called Where is Spacey’s planet?, telling the tale of a young alien trying to find his way home.
Astronomer Royal, Sir Martin Rees, and accomplished radio astronomer, Ronald Ekers, who both worked together with Miley, started the day with a review, in which they talked about the past, present and future of radio astronomy and cosmology. Cornelis van Bochove, professor of Science Policy at Leiden University, shared his view on the beneficial role of astronomy and basic research, on the economy. “What Miley is doing in developing countries helps them to open up for basic research, which is good for the economy,” he argued. Another speaker was Kevin Govender, director of the IAU office of astronomy development. He talked about the civilizing nature of science, especially the importance of education and research on empowering human minds specifically in developing countries.
Monday evening was a special celebration of the achievements of Miley, brain behind Universe Awareness and a leading radio astronomer, known worldwide for his work on exciting and revolutionary astronomy facilities and projects, including long baseline interferometry, black holes, quasars and LOFAR. He also developed the IAU strategic plan 2010-2020 called ‘Astronomy for the developing world’. The festivities included a talk from Miley about astronomy for development and capacity building, along with an introduction to the EU Universe Awareness programme for the audience.
The symposium will continue until Thursday, going deeper into the science and technology behind radio astronomy, discussions will deal with the importance of exploring radio galaxies and their use as probes of the evolution of the Universe.
For the full programme visit the Symposium website: http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/symposium/
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