Suzanne (Suzy) Gurton, NRAO’s Assistant Director for Education and Public Outreach, has been named the 2022 recipient of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s prestigious Klumpke-Roberts Award. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy.

Following a generous grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation, the Central Development Laboratory (CDL) at NSF’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) will soon launch an ambitious Women in Engineering program that will increase opportunities for women to enter the field of radio astronomy through engineering pathways. The program will include a postdoctoral fellowship and a co-op program for undergraduate and graduate students. 

NRAO is supporting a Mexican astronomer’s work to select and develop antenna sites in northern Mexico for the Next Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA).

Ground-breaking 2014 HL Tau observational data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has been cited in more than 1,000 scientific studies in the past 7.5 years, aiding in major breakthroughs in scientists’ understanding of planet formation. The milestone comes as engineers at the U.S. National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) embark on ambitious upgrades to the receivers responsible for the clarity of initial observations.

Following a generous grant from Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) will soon launch a two-year project to engage BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ students in learning about the electromagnetic spectrum and the excitement of amateur— also called ham— radio.

A team of engineers testing the design efficiency of reflectors for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s upcoming next generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) has received the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Harold A. Wheeler Applications Prize Paper Award.

Six outstanding high school seniors were awarded the 2021 AUI Scholarship. Among the recipients were five children of NRAO staff members.

Six NAC alums have accepted offers from outstanding graduate programs around the country. Each will receive a $5,000 AUI Board of Trustees NAC Bridge Scholarship Award, with AUI and NRAO’s congratulations and best wishes for a smooth start to an exciting new chapter of their lives.

Seven new scientific results from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Very Large Array (VLA), and the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS) will be revealed at multiple press conferences during the 240th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) between June 13-15, 2022 in Pasadena, California.

Astronomers have unveiled the first image of the supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy. This result provides overwhelming evidence that the object is indeed a black hole and yields valuable clues about the workings of such giants, which are thought to reside at the center of most galaxies. The image was produced by a global research team called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration, using observations from a worldwide network of radio telescopes.