BIWEEKLY CALENDAR OF THE ALMA PROJECT at NRAO Dec 5, 2005 -- Dec 19, 2005 ******************************** THIS FORTNIGHT***************************** On 22 November President Bush signed into law H.R. 2862, the "Science, State, Justice, Commerce, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006," shortly before issuing a Presidential Pardon to turkeys named "Marshmallow and Yam" in the Annual Turkey Ceremony associated with Thanksgiving. (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/11/20051122-4.html) In the Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction Account, ALMA will receive $49.24M. This is the eighth consecutive year of funding for ALMA appropriated by Congress. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- It is our pleasure to inform you that Dr. C. Cesarsky, Director General of ESO, and Dr. P. Mauté, on behalf of the Alcatel Alenia Space, EIE, MT Aerospace Consortium, have signed the procurement contract for the supply of 25 antennas, with an option to supply up to 32 antennas, for the ALMA project. We would like to take this important event to thank all our colleagues who have made important and significant contributions to successfully achieve this very essential milestone of ALMA. At the same time we wish to encourage all our colleagues to continue contributing with their dedicated passion to make sure that this very challenging and unprecedented project progresses to a success. With best regards, H. Rykaczewski, European ALMA Project Manager S. Stanghellini, ALMA Antenna IPT Leader ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Report of the Cost Review Committee was received by the ALMA Board. It is available on edm.alma.cl but public dissemination of the report awaits Board discussion at its 8 Dec telecon. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A delta-Cost Review plus and an unassociated review of NA project management will take place in January, probably on the week of 30 Jan in Charlottesville. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Past issues of this Calendar may be viewed at http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ALMACalendars.html See also the JAO ALMA Calendar overview at: http://www.alma.cl/alma_project ******************************************************************************* General Happenings Santiago: "Groups of galaxies in the nearby Universe" Dec 5 - 9, 2005 Providencia. OSF: AOS: Construction progress continues on the Technical Building. See image at http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/AOSTBcornerstone.jpg ATF: NTC: HIA: NAASC: ******************************************************************************* DAILY CALENDAR (Times EDT ) see https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar Mon 5 December Tue 6 December 10:30 am JAO/IPT telecon Wed 7 December Thu 8 Immaculate Conception Holiday, Chile 11:00 am Board telecon Fri 9 Sat 10 Sun 11 Mon 12 Tue 13 10:30 AM-11:30 AM: JAO IPT Telecon Wed 14 4:00 PM: ASAC Telecon Thu 15 Fri 16 Beethoven's Birthday Sat 17 Sun 18 ****************************** UPCOMING EVENTS **************************** ALMA Calendar--https://wikio.nrao.edu/bin/view/ALMA/AlmaCalendar * Dec 7-8 -- ESO Council Regular Meeting * Dec 8 -- ALMA Board * Dec 22 -- ALMA Board * Jan 4-7 -- URSI/NA, Boulder * Jan 4 --- ASAC telecon * Jan 6 -- ANASAC telecon * Jan 9 -- ALMA Town Meeting, AAS * Jan 9-12 -- AAS meeting, Washington * Jan 12-14 -- ALMA Zmachines workshop * Jan 28-29 ASAC face-to-face ******************************* TECHNICAL NEWS ***************************** ******************************ALSO OF INTEREST****************************** ---------------------------ALMA Postdocs----------------------------------- 2006 Postdoc Position at the North American ALMA Science Center/ALMA Construction The National Radio Astronomy Observatory expects to invite applications for a NRAO Postdoctoral appointment at the North American ALMA Science Center in Charlottesville, Va. These positions provide 50% time for independent research, with the remaining 50% assigned to project and operational duties at the sites. The position is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation through the ALMA Construction Project. See http://www.nrao.edu/administration/personnel_office/careers.shtml#alma --------------------------------------------- ****************************************************************************** Please send information for upcoming calendars by Friday evening of the preceding biweekly period to Jennifer Neighbours or Al Wootten via e-mail (jneighbo@nrao.edu or awootten@nrao.edu). The calendar will be issued between late Friday and sometime on Monday by e-mail to all NRAO scientific staff members and anyone else interested. A specific mailing list, alma-info, has been created for anyone wishing to receive it. Past issues are available at http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/mmaimcal/ALMACalendars.html