The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) organization has appointed Daniel T. Jaffe, a Texan with a long history of successful astronomic research and project leadership, its new president. The esteemed astronomy professor has served as vice president of research at the University of Texas (U.T.) at Austin for nearly a decade and played a key role in establishing U.T’s partnership with the telescope. Jaffe joins during a period of significant growth in the GMT’s development as it begins to seek federal funding.
Robert N. Shelton, who served as GMT president for eight years, announced his retirement last year.
“I am honored to lead the Giant Magellan Telescope at this exciting stage,” Jaffe said in a press release from the GMT. “Robert Shelton leaves behind a strong foundation, and I look forward to working with our consortium partners and the U.S. government to advance construction. For me, as for the U.S. astronomical community and our international partners, the Giant Magellan Telescope represents a profound leap in our ability to explore the Universe and employ a host of new technologies to make fundamental discoveries.”
Dr. Darren DePoy, associate dean for infrastructure in Texas A&M University’s College of Arts and Sciences and a professor in the George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, was instrumental in ensuring that Texas A&M was one of the GMT’s first consortium members. As such, he is a longtime colleague and friend of Jaffe.
“Dr. Jaffe is an experienced, talented astrophysicist with a strong research background that prepares him to understand the needs of the telescope,” said DePoy. “He brings a technical background that will allow him to translate the telescope’s needs clearly for engineering teams, which is key for a leader of this project.”
Jaffe’s research led to improvements in ground and space telescope resolution and has become the standard at many prestigious observatories. His most recent instrument, the Giant Magellan Telescope Near-Infrared Spectrograph, has directly improved the GMT’s capability to study near-infrared (meaning beyond the visual spectrum of light) celestial bodies, which will assist in furthering research on planetary system formation and small stars.
“He’s a person who understands why ground-based telescopes are useful, how they can be made even more useful and how they can be updated to remain cutting-edge research facilities,” said DePoy. “I think he’s the right person to lead the Giant Magellan telescope with that philosophy so it can be a valuable research instrument far into the future.”
Jaffe will build on the momentum and progress fostered by Shelton with goals of achieving federal funding and advancing the telescope’s construction status as top priorities. As other universities, such as Northwestern University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, continue to join the international consortium, they bring experts in artificial intelligence and reinforce the organization’s existing collaboration with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. Under Jaffe’s leadership, the revolutionary project will continue pushing the boundaries of astronomical discovery.
“Everybody would like to get the telescope built as quickly as possible, but there’s a process to meet the requirements for federal funding,” said DePoy. “Dr. Jaffe is familiar with that process. Over the years, he has secured money from similar organizations that fund research projects, so he’s a logical person to oversee the final design phase of the project and moving it to a point at which the National Science Foundation and other organizations will be comfortable investing more money into it.”
Although contributors to the Giant Magellan Telescope come from around the world, Texas scholars, engineers and companies have played a significant role in advancing the project to its current stage. Texas A&M helped build the telescope’s first mirror control mechanisms, which involved efforts from undergraduates, staff and graduate students. These mechanisms are comprised of actuators and sensors guided by software that allows for constant adjustment of the telescope so it can stay fixed on one point in space despite Earth’s rotation and other external factors, making it an essential part of any functional telescope.
With Jaffe’s appointment as president of the GMTO, representation and involvement among Texas astronomical researchers continues to grow as the world anticipates the telescope’s next phase of construction.
About Giant Magellan Telescope
The Giant Magellan Telescope is the future of ground-based astronomy. Using seven of the world’s largest mirrors, the 25.4-meter telescope will deliver the most detailed images of the Universe ever taken. It will uncover the cosmic mysteries of dark matter, investigate the origins of elements and search for signs of life on distant planets. The Giant Magellan is the work of the GMTO Corporation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and international consortium of 16 universities and research institutions including the University of Arizona, Carnegie Institution for Science, The University of Texas at Austin, Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, University of Chicago, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, São Paulo Research Foundation, Texas A&M University, Northwestern University, Harvard University, Astronomy Australia Ltd., Australian National University, Smithsonian Institution, Weizmann Institute of Science, Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, and Arizona State University. The observatory is under construction in Chile, with major components manufactured in the United States, and will be completed in the 2030s. The Universe Awaits at giantmagellan.org.