New CTIO Chief

Alistair Walker is the new director of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in La Serena, Chile. He took the reins of the US National Optical Astronomy Observatory’s outpost in the Southern Hemisphere on 8 November.

Perhaps best known for his work measuring the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud, Walker first went to the CTIO in 1977. Except for seven years at the South African Astronomical Observatory, he’s been there ever since, and served for the past four years as deputy director. The observatory operates the 4-meter Blanco telescope, will celebrate the dedication of the 4-meter Southern Astrophysical Research telescope (SOAR) in April, is building an adaptive optics facility for SOAR, and is conducting site tests for the Thirty Meter Telescope and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.

Walker succeeds Malcolm Smith, who stepped down after a decade in the job. Smith will stay on as director of the AURA Observatory in Chile, which provides operational support for the CTIO and the Gemini South telescope. As president of the International Astronomical Union’s commission for the protection of existing and potential astronomical sites, Smith plays a leading role in the effort to protect ground-based observatories worldwide from light pollution, radio frequency interference, and light from orbiting space debris.