The ORP Board is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Stéphane Basa to the position of ORP Coordinator, effective immediately.  Dr. Basa is currently Research Director at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM/AMU/CNRS/CNES) and CoPI of the SVOM space mission.

With his strong background in high energy astrophysics, optical astronomy and in scientific project management, the ORP Board is confident that Dr. Basa will make a positive contribution to the Pilot project. This change of Scientific Coordinators follows the appointment of Jean-Gabriel Cuby as Executive Director of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT).

The ORP is one of the European Commission's transnational access 'pilot' programs under EC H2020, launched in March 2021. ORP's ambition is to bring together astronomers from different communities, radio and optical, to create a much stronger community to better exploit the possibilities of multi-wavelength science, while promoting mutual cross-fertilization.