Michael Wise appointed for second term as SRON Director
NWO-I has appointed Michael Wise for a second five-year term as Director of SRON. During his first five years, Wise has led the relocation of SRON's headquarters from Utrecht to Leiden and several space missions came to fruition.
Over the past five years, the Dutch space instrument SPEXone has developed from concept to being stand-by for launch this February as part of NASA's PACE climate satellite. Last August, the XRISM X-ray telescope was launched including a filter wheel developed by SRON. And around Christmas time, NASA's balloon telescope GUSTO will be launched from Antarctica, for which SRON has built the cameras.
Other space missions in their start-up phase have earned their wings during the past five years. For example, the Dutch contribution to the gravitational wave detector LISA received an NWO roadmap grant and ESA's X-ray telescope Athena underwent the necessary reforms. For the exoplanet hunter PLATO, SRON has made a new space simulator.
New term
Wise is looking forward to his upcoming new term: "Many exciting opportunities lie ahead. First of all, our Groningen branch will be relocating across the Zernike Campus to a brand-new building. And we are expecting some missions to be launched including exoplanet telescopes PLATO and ARIEL and earth observation satellites such as the upcoming PACE mission. And as always, we're thinking about what comes next with several new mission opportunities in development. All the while, we will be doing great science with the data from our current and incoming new missions".
Enthusiasm
NWO chairman Marcel Levi: "I am very pleased that Michael Wise is prepared to continue to lead SRON for the next five years with his signature flair, energy and enthusiasm. The past few years have brought many changes and he has guided SRON through them in an excellent manner. The NWO-I board is confident that he will meet the new challenges for the coming years in the same way".