It was no ordinary stone. That monolith in Chajnantor was engraved with some kind of moons that looked like an observatory, and it said “ALMA – AOS Technical Building”.
It was September 2006, and Giorgio Siringo -who had arrived two years earlier to put “eyes” on the APEX radio telescope from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany- could never again erase that image from his mind.
At that time, the Italian astronomer did not know that in 2012 he would arrive at ALMA as a Test Scientist, and even less could he imagine that the following year he would have his own office at the OSF as Observatory Senior RF Engineer.
Today he does much more in the Engineering Department: in addition to being our Front End Technical Lead and Spectrum Manager, he ensures that ALMA’s “eyes”, our receivers, have the necessary quality for astronomical observations and maximum availability 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Looking back, Giorgio recalls how for a long time the first three antennas remained rather isolated. “They looked like monuments abandoned in the desert by an ancient civilization, especially at sunset on cloudy days.”
But starting in 2010 the ALMA site began to develop more and more until it took on the appearance we know today. “A grandiose technological machine that has no equal in the world,” says Giorgio proudly.
An event that marked not only ALMA, but also personally Giorgio, was the transition from the construction phase to the operation phase, between 2013 and 2014. “This wonderful machine changed the world, offering a previously impossible astronomical observing capability, producing the kind of ‘transformational science’ for which it was designed.”
But there are other events that stuck in Giorgio’s mind, such as when Pink Floyd guitarist, David Gilmour, visited the observatory and the Engineering team built a model showing him playing guitar among the ALMA antennas. “He took pictures and videos of us himself, he became our fan!” recalls Giorgio.
And on the scientific side, what most caught his attention was the image of the “Einstein ring”, produced by the gravitational lensing effect of a magnifying glass galaxy, SDP.81, located 11.7 billion light-years away.
“In these 10 years ALMA has changed a lot, both in its organization and from the scientific output, and it has become an established project worldwide. I have also changed, both professionally and personally. However, this process of professional growth has not been without sacrifices.
I am happy with how things have been going these 10 years. It has been a unique and rewarding adventure that has enriched me, with no regrets,” closes Giorgio.
It is great to learn what are the things that has left an imprint on my colleagues minds over the years! So much to learn!