NORTH AMERICAN ALMA SCIENCE CENTER (NAASC)

The North American ALMA Science Center (NAASC) in Charlottesville is responsible for supporting the science use of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) by the North American astronomical community (the USA via the NRAO, and Canada via the National Research Council Canada). The NAASC is also responsible for the core functions in support of ALMA operation in Chile and the research and development activities in support of future upgrades of ALMA.

The ANASAC provides scientific advice to the NRAO director on the science operation of ALMA and the North American ALMA Science Center, as representatives of the wider North American astronomical community. The link above lists the ANASAC membership, meeting dates and links to ANASAC reports.

The NAASC is an operational division of within NRAO Headquarters, located in in Charlottesville, VA on the campus of the University of Virginia. Directions to the NAASC can be found here

The North American ALMA Regional Center (NA ARC) is a subset of the NAASC, concentrating on the internationally agreed upon ALMA core functions (e.g. helpdesk support, telescope support in Chile, etc.). Each of the international partners has similar ARCs:

• East Asian ARC
• European ARC
• European ARC Nodes

The ALMA Operations Support Facility (OSF) Web Cam is up and running. It allows you to watch the OSF construction activities and has been configured to show a picture every minute.

NAASC Calendar - Click Here

or click on the name of the month in the calendar below to open in a new window.

Open NAASC Positions Positions being filled at NRAO, possibily associated with the North American ALMA Science Center: NAASC Scientist - Commissioning Liaison NAASC Scientist - CASA Scientific Software Developer NRAO Tenure Track Astronomer NAASC Postdoctoral Fellow - Splatalogue NAASC Postdoctoral Fellow - CASA For details, see NRAO enews from September 2008. For other ALMA-related jobs, see: ALMA Commissioning Scientist JAO job page NRAO job page ESO job page NAOJ ALMA Jobs: EA ARC Scientist; EA CSV Scientist

3rd NAASC ALMA Science Workshop Transformational Science with ALMA: The Birth and Feedback of Massive Stars, Within and Beyond the Galaxy The NAASC and the University of Virginia sponsored a workshop from September 25–27, 2008 at the NAASC in Charlottesville, Virginia on the topic of massive star formation and feedback. The meeting focused on how ALMA will impact our understanding of massive star formation on scales from massive proto-stars up to galaxies. The science program and pdf versions of most of the talks are available off of the meeting webpage. Article about meeting from October 2008 NRAO eNews.

ALMA News from the NRAO Electronic Newsletter December 2008 ALMA-related Content: Career Opportunities ALMA Construction Taiwan Welcomed as New North AMerican ALMA Partner More ALMA News ALMA Construction Photogallery Digital images of the construction project and the OSF webcam are available via the above link.   ALMA Presentations Includes links to ALMA powerpoint presentations, copies of the talks and poster presentations given at AAS meetings, and talks and publications from NAASC staff.

Approximate Timeline for NAASC:

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