The university was expecting to be in a good
position to receive billions for TMT-related
astronomy research and instrumentation
development from the National Science
Foundation but the funding will go elsewhere if
the telescope isn’t built in Hawaii, Syrmos said.
The university’s Institute for Astronomy is among
the top three programs at the school in terms of
the amount of research dollars generated.
Overall, the university brought in $430 million
in research money this year, a 10% increase over
the previous year. Syrmos said he’s working to
move that number closer to a half-billion in the
next three to four years.
But it may not be possible without the TMT.
“Right now our reputation is excellent,” Syrmos
said. “We’re going to be good enough in
astronomy for years to come without the Thirty
Meter Telescope. But we’re not going to be a
center of excellence like we are now. We need
to push the needle for our science and research.
And the TMT is the opportunity.”
An international consortium of universities
and national observatories is spearheading the
telescope project. It has spent the past decade
winning the necessary permits from the state of
Hawaii to build the $1.4 billion observatory.
The University of Hawaii will receive at least
7.5% of the observation time on the telescope if
it’s built on Mauna Kea, one of the world’s best
spots for viewing the skies.
The Thirty Meter Telescope is one of three next-
generation extremely large telescopes planned
around the world. The other two are being
built in Chile. TMT has said it will build in Spain’s
Canary Islands if it’s unable to build in Hawaii.