Catherine Pilachowski, of the University of Indiana (USA), Christoffel Waelkens, of the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium), Malcolm Longair, of the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom), Álvaro Giménez, of the European Space Agency (ESA), and by videoconference, Saku Tsuneta, of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ, met this morning with the Directors of the IAC and of the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), as members of the Advisory Research Commission(CAI) of the IAC. This Commission is the highest advisory committe of the Institute for research, and analyses it scientific and technological production. Phil Charles, of the University of Southampton (United KIngdom) also took part via videoconference, in his capacity as a member of the Science and Technology Advisory Committee (STAC) of the GTC.

At the meeting the Director of the IA1c, Rafael Rebolo, presented the scientific and technological activity of the Institute, as well as the proposed Stategic Plan for the next four years of the Teide Observatory (Izaña, Tenerife) and the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (Garafía, La Palma). In addition, the Director of the GTC, Romano Corradi also presented a report of the activities of this telescope and of its future plans.

Today, Wednesday, some of the members of the commission will be visiting the Teide Observatory, in Tenerife.