Luis Chavarría Becomes ESO Representative in Chile

Today, the Chilean astronomer Luis Chavarría became ESO’s new Representative in Chile. He succeeds Jean-Michel Bonneau, who was  the interim Representative from June 2021 following Claudio Melo’s departure at the end of May 2021.

Luis Chavarría will lead the ESO Representation Office in Chile, which acts on behalf of the ESO Director General in all relevant matters for the organisation in the country. This includes collaborating with Chilean communities and authorities and the diplomatic missions of ESO Member States in Chile. Chavarría will be the first Chilean national to hold this position.

“I would like to continue promoting ESO as a pole of scientific development for society, based on the work done at La Silla, Paranal and ALMA observatories. Moreover, ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope construction and the Cherenkov Telescope Array South arrival, open the doors to new scientific collaboration from disciplines close to astronomy, such as astrobiology or the high-energy physics,” said Chavarría. “ESO contributes to science in general, reaching out to society.“

In addition, Chavarría would like to continue strengthening ESO’s relations with Chile through transdisciplinary collaboration. “Promoting the exchange of knowledge between experts from Chile and the ESO Member States in various scientific disciplines is increasing the institution’s impact.”

Luis Chavarría has a BSc and a PhD a BSc and a PhD in science with a major in astronomy from Universidad de Chile. He carried out his doctoral thesis research at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the US and has completed postdoctoral studies in Chile, France and Spain, focusing on star-formation processes. He arrived at the Chilean National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) in 2013 as Support Astronomer and as Chilean Coordinator for the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX).

In 2016, he became the Director of the Chilean Astronomy Programme. He coordinated strategies to strengthen international collaboration and support Chile’s growing scientific infrastructure to benefit the national scientific community. Among many activities, he represented Chile at the Boards of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), APEX, both co-owned by ESO, and the Gemini telescopes. He also coordinated a commission to establish protected areas against light pollution around the observatories in Chile.

Until 2019, he led the Chilean Astronomy Day, expanding the event from one day in one city to one week throughout the entire country. In 2021, before coming to ESO, he headed the group in charge of the international strategy at ANID.

Courtesy of European Southern Observatory