Concepción, 16 April 2019

Astronomers from Universidad de Concepción to receive Medal Recognition by the Senate Chamber

Scientists Neil Nagar and Venkatessh Ramakrishnan will receive this dinstinction for their contribution to capturing the first-ever image of a black hole - an historical achievement for astronomy.

Congratulations continue for Drs. Neil Nagar and Venkatessh Ramakrishnan, both from the Astronomy Department of Universidad de Concepción, who will be awarded the Medal Recognition by the Senate of Chile for their contribution to Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) in capturing the first-ever image in history of a black hole's shadow.

Jaime Quintana Leal, President of the Senate of Chile, invited both researchers "for their extraordinary contribution to science and humanity". They will be received at the Senate Chamber in Valparaiso on 17 April.

On 10 April 2019, the first-ever image of a black hole was unveiled to the world. This milestone was achieved by the collaborative work of over 200 researchers from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) - a global network of telescopes across Chile, México, USA, Europe and the South Pole - which work as a single Earth-sized telescope. After years of research, the team succeeded in capturing this historic image, now part of scientific history.

Thanks to the contributions of Neil Nagar and Venkatessh Ramakrishnan, Universidad de Concepción became the only Chilean institution to participate in this international project.

Dr. Nagar Contribution

Universidad de Concepción has been an EHT member since its fundation. Dr. Nagar - academic at the Astronomy Department of Universidad de Concepción since 2004 - serves as co-coordinator of the EHT Working Group “AGN and Other Non-Horizon Science”. His key contributions include the analysis of ALMA datasets, support in APEX observations, proposals (e.g., Co-PI in M87 and SgrA* proposals to ALMA) and funds for postdoctoral researchers, the creation of a sample with nearby galaxies - beyond SgrA* and M87 - for EHT observations, and mass determination for black holes as M87 and other future objects aimed by EHT.

Dr. Ramakrishnan Contribution

Ramakrishnan was appointed as ALMA-Conicyt postdoctorate researcher at Universidad de Concepción since 2007 to support the scientific utilisation of EHT. He has done significant contributions for the EHT Imaging Group, participating in all imaging efforts done to M87. His work also focuses on imaging other EHT objects. Ramakrishnan specialises in both continuum and spectral line images from ALMA data obtained for the EHT, hence improving the calibration for EHT, and shortlisting a bigger sample of nearby galaxies for future EHT observations. Besides, He is actively involved in all EHT observations (past and future) at APEX.

Celeste Burgos Badal
Astronomy Department Communications