ESO has always been a forward-looking organization, focussed on pres-ent and future programmes and proj-ects. In its 40th year, this is as true asever, as ESO keeps its eyes on imple-menting the VLTI, initiating the devel-opment of the second-generation in-strumentation for the VLT and, ofcourse, embarking on Phase II of theALMA project, for which the ESOCouncil gave the green light at its mid-year meeting in London. Still, a 40th an-niversary warrants a look at thedecades passed and a reflection on therole and achievements of the organiza-tion during a period of time in which ourscience has progressed tremendously.That ESO has achieved its goals isundisputed, providing evidence of thewisdom of those astronomers whogathered in Leiden in early 1954 to for-mulate the need for this organizationand justifying the trust displayed by thefive countries, which were the originalsignatories to the 1962 convention thatformed the legal base for ESO.

There were many milestones onESO’s road to success. Not surprising-ly, many of them were recalled – andretold – during the various celebrationsin September and October this year,described in the Anniversary issue ofThe Messenger, as well as, undoubted-ly, in numerous conversations amongmembers of the ESO ‘family’, be it for-mer or present staff, members of com-mittees or Council – or users in the sci-entific community.

Rather than organizing a single,high-profile central celebration event,ESO opted for a series of events, be-ginning with the official visit on 9

September by Dr. Uwe Thomas, Secre-tary of State for education and researchof the German Federal Government.Speeches by Dr. Thomas, Prof. RalfBender (LMU), Prof. Wolfgang Hille-brandt (MPA), ESO’s Director Generaland Dr. Arno Freytag, President of theESO Council, were followed by ascreening of a (pre-premiere) version ofthe anniversary film ‘Europe Reachesfor the Stars – Forty Years ESO’. Also,the anniversary book ‘GeheimnisvollesUniversum – Europas Astronomenentschleiern das Weltall’ by Germanscience journalist Dirk Lorenzen wasshown for the first time with hand-

bound copies presented to Dr. Thomas,Dr. Freytag, Mr. Manfred Solbrig, theMayor of Garching, and to ESO’sDirector General.

On 14 October, a joint celebration bythe Garching staff and the ESO Counciltook place, with speeches by ESO’sCouncil President, the Director Generaland Claudio Cumani, Chairman of theESO International Staff Association.The event was ‘broadcast’ via ESO’svideo-conference system. The anniver-sary film was shown to the entire staff,both in Garching and at simultaneousanniversary parties in Santiago, at LaSilla and Paranal.

As mentioned in the last issue of TheMessenger, ESO’s anniversary is alsoa public event. Perhaps most visible isthe new planetarium show, producedby the Association des planétariums delangue française (APLF) in collabora-tion with ESO. It is entitled ‘Mys-teries of the Southern Sky’ and will be-come available in French, German,English, Dutch, Spanish and possiblyother languages. Until now, about 40planetaria in France and seven othercountries have signed up and will stagethe show in the coming weeks andmonths.

The formal premiere took place on 11October at the Cité de l’Espace inToulouse. The premiere event for an in-vited audience encompassed scientifictalks by Drs. Françoise Combes andMarc Lachieze-Rey and an evening re-ception accompanied by live LatinAmerican tunes.

Meanwhile, the ESO anniversary filmis available on a three-language DVD(English, French, German), as well as

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Celebrating ESO’s 40th AnniversaryC. MADSEN, ESO

The newly refurbished auditorium in Garching was packed during the anniversary celebrationon 14 October.

Dr. Uwe Thomas addressing an invited audience during his visit to the ESO Headquarters on9 September.

in single-language versions on VHStapes. Among other places, the DVDwill be widely available through thoseplanetaria staging the ESO show.

Finally, the CD-ROM (in English) en-titled ‘3D Atlas of the Universe’, is now

scheduled for early December. TheCD-ROM, which is produced in a col-laboration between ESO, USM (Mu-nich) and Planetary Visions (UniversityCollege, London), includes video clips,photos and texts about ESO as well as

some of the most spectacular astro-nomical images based on observationsat La Silla and Paranal combined withadvanced 3D simulation software. It willbe commercially available all overEurope.

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ESO’s Director General addressing the invited audience at the pre-miere of the planetarium show in Toulouse.

In spite of the decidedly unpleasant weather in Garching on 14October, good catering contributed to the convivial atmosphere in theparty tent, as about 250 people gathered for the dinner for staff andCouncil.

Breaking the Ground for the EuropeanResearch Area – The Conference ‘EuropeanResearch 2002’C. MADSEN, ESO

In the days November 11–13, about9000 scientists, science administratorsand policy makers gathered in Brusselsto attend the Launch Conference forthe ‘6th Framework Programme of theEuropean Community for research,technological development and demon-

stration activities’ – or for short, ‘FP-6’.While most participants came from themember states of the European Union,candidate countries and associatedstates, the meeting was in fact attend-ed by people from 65 countries,demonstrating the wide scope and the

importance of the process set in motionto create the European Research Area.Some 50 TV teams and 230 journalistsfrom the print media covered the event,which El País, the leading Spanishnewspaper, described as ‘The ScienceSummit in Brussels’. The strong mediainterest bears witness to the fact thatscience and technology (and with them,also education) are playing an increas-ingly important and visible role in thepublic sphere and that the organizationand execution of research, as well asthe exploitation of scientific results, areassuming importance in the main-stream political debate.

Winds of Change

The background for the strong partic-ipation to the meeting is certainly to befound in the notion of a change of thepolitical climate in Europe with respectto science and technology. The Lisbondeclaration by the European Council inMarch 2000, stated that the EU should‘become the most competitive and dy-namic knowledge-based economy inthe world, capable of sustainable eco-nomic growth with more and better jobsand greater social cohesion’. It was re-The ESO stand formed a part of the EIROforum area.