Director-General of SKAO to remain at helm until 2025

Prof. Philip Diamond will continue leading the SKAO until mid-2025. He has been a staunch supporter of the SKA project since it was first broached in the early 1990s and joined the then SKA Organisation in October 2012.

Under his leadership, international engineering consortia developed and delivered the SKA telescopes’ design, several new countries joined up, and the project’s Global Headquarters was formally selected. The SKAO furthermore transitioned into an intergovernmental organisation and the Council last year approved construction of the SKA telescopes, with SKAO teams rapidly growing in Australia and South Africa.

“In a show of confidence, the Council unanimously agreed to appoint Prof. Diamond as Director-General until July 2025,” said the Chair of the Council, Dr Catherine Cesarsky. “I wish him every success during this important construction period and in firming up the partnership between countries.”

Prof. Diamond holds a PhD in radio astronomy from the University of Manchester. In the intervening four decades, he has worked at radio astronomy facilities in Sweden, Germany, the United States, and Australia – notching up more than 300 journal articles.

“I am honoured that the SKAO Council have granted me another term in office,” said Prof. Diamond. “I believe it reflects their comfort with the status and direction of the Observatory which is, of course, a direct result of the staff of SKAO and our partners, who are all working hard to make it a success.

“My goal for the next few years is to ensure that construction proceeds as planned and that we see first light – or first fringes as we radio astronomers call it – from SKA dishes and antennas as rapidly as possible.”