Open Competition Science-M grant for Eline Tolstoy

The Dutch Research Council (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, NWO) has awarded an Open Competition Science-M grant to Prof. Eline Tolstoy of the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute. She receives an M-invest grant worth EUR 500,000 for her project 'The Netherlands delivers the Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector for the Extremely Large Telescope'.

The Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector (ADC) is a small, but critical component for creating razor-sharp images with the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). Without an ADC the light of stars fuses into a blur of overlapping rainbows. The ADC corrects the atmosphere in real-time, separating stars and making it possible to measure their properties. A working prototype has been developed, and this NWO funding enables Tolstoy's team to build the ADC for the MICADO instrument and put it into operation. It will benefit Dutch and European astronomy for 10-20 years.

NWO Open Competition Domain Science-M
M-grants are intended for realizing curiosity-driven, fundamental research of high quality and / or scientific urgency. The grant offers researchers the possibility to elaborate creative and risky ideas and to realise scientific innovations that can form the basis for the research themes of the future.