The board of the W. M. Keck Observatory is pleased to announce that Hilton Lewis has been appointed Director of Keck Observatory, effective immediately. He has served as the Interim Director since May.
Hilton Lewis, Director, W. M. Keck Observatory, credit Ethan Tweedie“The board is delighted that Hilton has agreed to take on this substantial responsibility,” said Ed Stolper, Chairman of the California Association for Research in Astronomy board, which manages Keck Observatory. “In his many years of service at Keck Observatory, and in the past four months as its Interim Director, Hilton has demonstrated his technical, managerial and leadership skills, and his commitment to the observatory. We are pleased that we have been able to attract such an outstanding and experienced leader to serve as our next Director”.
“We are delighted to welcome Hilton Lewis as the new Director of Keck Observatory. Hilton has a deep understanding of the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for the observatory, a thorough knowledge of its workings, and the strategic vision to keep Keck Observatory at the forefront of astronomical research,” said UC Santa Cruz Chancellor George Blumenthal, who also serves as the vice chair of the Keck Observatory board.
The Board of Directors of the W. M. Keck Observatory announced today that Taft Armandroff, executive director of the world’s premier ground-based astronomical observatory, will step down on June 1 to become a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and director of its McDonald Observatory.
W. M. Keck Observatory Director Taft Armandroff Credit: Ethan TweedieArmandroff joined Keck Observatory in June 2006. During his tenure, the observatory continued to be a global leader in optical and infra-red astronomy. Keck Observatory serves nearly five hundred astronomers drawn not only from the United States but also from around the world, including Australia. The observatory also provides ground-based support for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Before coming to Keck Observatory, Armandroff worked at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) in Tucson, Arizona, for 19 years, holding positions of associate director and director of the NOAO Gemini Science Center. He is a 1982 graduate in astronomy of Wesleyan University, and he earned his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in astronomy from Yale University. His scientific research has focused dwarf spheroidal galaxies, stellar populations in the Milky Way galaxy and nearby galaxies, globular clusters, chemical evolution of galaxies, and dark matter.
As executive director of the W. M. Keck Observatory, Armandroff reports to a governing board representing the observatory’s founding partners, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of California (UC). The governing board also has liaisons from the NASA, the W. M. Keck Foundation, and the University of Hawaii. In 2013, Keck Observatory managed a budget of $25 million to support the organization’s 120 professional staff, operations, and advanced instrument initiatives.
“Taft did an exceptional job in maintaining the high productivity of Keck Observatory,” said Tom Soifer, Caltech Professor of Physics and a member of the California Association for Astronomical Research (CARA) Board. “During his tenure federal and privately funded cutting edge instruments were built and great advances were made in adaptive optics. We wish him well in his new job.”
