The statement has been made in response to the support for the program given by the National Science Board at its most recent meeting on May 9 and 10, 2006. Commenting on the matter, Dr. J. Craig Wheeler, President-Elect of the American Astronomical Society, said “ALMA is an excellent example of an international cooperative effort that will benefit astronomy across a wide range of disciplines.

NSF is to be congratulated for finding the means to move this project forward in an external environment of rising expenses.” Dr. Wheeler is the Samuel T. and Fern Yanagisawa Regents Professor of Astronomy at The University of Texas at Austin.

AAS Statement on the Atacama Large Millimeter Array

The American Astronomical Society (AAS) applauds the National Science Foundation for moving forward with a rebaselined, fifty-antenna Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA).

This decision will enable ALMA to do the transformational science that made it a high priority project in the past two National Academy Decadal surveys of Astronomy and Astrophysics. ALMA will lay the groundwork for future global science projects, both in astronomy and in other Disciplines.

As a world project involving multiple regions - Asia, Europe and the Americas - and operating under a fully international governance structure, ALMA has successfully overcome many hurdles and is now poised for completion in 2012.

We are very pleased that the NSF continues its strong support of ALMA. ALMA will enable important discoveries about the origin of galaxies, stars and planetary systems. The AAS stands ready to work with Congress, the Administration and the NSF to fully implement the prioritized projects described in the Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey.

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