Tomaso Belloni was a six-year-old kid who wanted to become an astronomer. He succeeded. He graduated in Physics at the Università di Milano (Italy) and then he was a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, near Munich (Germany), and at the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands). Currently he is an associate professor at the Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera (Italy) and a visiting professor at the University of Southampton (United Kingdom).

Vik Dhillon is Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. He took an undergraduate degree in Physics with Astronomy and a PhD in Observational Astrophysics. He has a privileged relationship with the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC): he worked , for four years at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos (ORM), in the island of La Palma and he is now an “Affiliated Researcher” at the IAC. After his experience in La Palma he moved to the Royal Greenwich Observatory, before attaining his present position.

The XXVII Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics’ purpose is to equip young scientists with an understanding of the most recent technological and theoretical advances in High Time Resolution Astrophysics (HTRA). Rafael Rebolo, director of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), will welcome the lecturers and students on Monday 9th at 9 am in the conference room.

Takaaki Kajita was planning to go October 9th to the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (ORM), for the ceremony of the stone laying for the prototype of the LST (Large Size Telescope) as the director of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research (ICRR; Tokyo), a very relevant institution in the LST consortium. A couple of days before, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics (along with Arthur B. Mc Donald) for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which prove that neutrinos have mass. Would he still come?

Telescopes from the two observatories of the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canraries (IAC) observe the new asteroid close to the Earth.

The first eight Severo Ochoa centres, among them the IAC, have had their awards renewed for four more years. Scientific excellence and innovation in Spain have been consolidated with three new Severo Ochoa awards, and four “María de Maeztu” awards.Rafael Rebolo, the Director of the IAC in a statement said that “The renovation of the award to the IAC is excellent news, which encourages us to keep working to carry out the best science and technology”.