As previously announced, an open process to recruit an LPO Director was launched by ESO in late 2023. Thomas Klein, currently Deputy Director of the La Silla Paranal Observatory and Programme Manager of the Integrated Operations Programme, was selected following a competitive process. Thomas will begin his service as LPO Director on 1 August 2024, reporting to Andreas Kaufer, who will remain ESO Director of Operations.
Thomas Klein, Director of the La Silla Paranal Observatory as of 1 August 2024
Published: 27 Jun 2024
Thomas will lead the La Silla Paranal Observatory (LPO) into the future. In the coming years LPO will undergo a significant transformation through the implementation of the Integrated Operations Programme, which aims at deploying a lean, remote and high performance operations model capable of operating not only La Silla and the VLT and VLTI in Paranal, but also the ELT.
The LPO is one of the three divisions that constitute ESO's Directorate of Operations, together with the Data Management and Operations (DMO, headed by Michael Sterzik) and ESO ALMA Support Centre (EASC, headed by Elizabeth Humphreys) divisions. Andreas Kaufer, ESO Director of Operations, has been also exercising the role of division head of LPO since 2006. ESO decided that the upcoming changes required that a new division head, fully dedicated to the management of the LPO, should be recruited.