Abstract
ESO is an intergovernmental organisation for astronomy founded in 1962 by five countries. It currently has 15 Member States in Europe with Brazil poised to join in the near future. Together these countries represent approximately 30 percent of the world’s astronomers.
ESO operates optical/infrared observatories on La Silla and Paranal in Chile, partners in the sub-millimetre radio observatories APEX and ALMA on Chajnantor and has started construction of the Extremely Large Telescope on Armazones near Paranal. The colloquium will provide an overview of the ESO programme, with emphasis on recent developments, and will briefly touch on opportunities for the future.
Prof. Tim de Zeeuw
Tim de Zeeuw received his PhD degree from Leiden University in 1984. He subsequently worked at the Institute for Advanced Study and at Caltech before returning to Leiden in 1990 as professor of theoretical astronomy. His research focuses on the formation, structure and dynamics of galaxies. He was co-PI of the SAURON project which combined ground-breaking integral-field spectroscopy and theoretical modelling to revolutionize our understanding of the nature and formation of early-type galaxies. He received the 2001 Prix Descartes-Huygens and the 2010 Brouwer Award, holds honorary doctorates from the Universities of Lyon, Chicago and Padova, and has been Director General of ESO since 2007.