Outgoing High Sheriff of Clwyd, Celia Jenkins, was given a tour of Glyndŵr University’s OpTIC Centre in St Asaph by Vice Chancellor Professor Michael Scott, and Professor of Communications, Peter Excell.
She saw first-hand the work of the ESO Project team polishing mirrors for the £900million European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) as well as visiting incubation units and the award-winning Glyndwr Innovations team.
“I was heartened to see and learn about the developments at Glyndŵr’s OpTIC facility at St Asaph,” said Celia.
“The Glyndŵr staff and other entrepreneurs were passionate about their enterprises and how their cutting-edge research offers exciting commercial possibilities.”
Celia read French, German and Linguistics at Cambridge University before entering the marketing and communications industry and working for the Financial Times in London.
She is a magistrate on the Wrexham bench, where she also sits on the youth panel, and is a volunteer mentor for The Prince’s Trust.
Celia added: “The apparatus to test polish mirrors for the European-Extra Large Telescope was particularly impressive.
“It is fantastic to see this sort of innovation and enterprise in North Wales, fully supported by – and supporting – world-class initiatives across a range of industries connected to the manipulation of light.
“The staff were, to a person, terrific communicators and enthusiastic about the potential of their businesses and research activities.”
Prof Michael Scott thanked her for visiting the Denbighshire site – part of the University’s A55 ‘knowledge corridor’ – and congratulated her on a successful year in office.
“It was a pleasure to welcome Celia to the OpTIC Centre,” he said.
“We’re delighted she got to see first-hand the world-leading research happening here and the opportunities it will bring for Glyndŵr going forward.”
Last autumn, Glyndŵr scientists polishing mirrors for the E-ELT – the largest telescope the world has ever seen – successfully achieved a ground-breaking milestone.
Led by Project Manager Tony Fox-Leonard, the team met ESO’s (European Southern Observatory) “extremely challenging” specifications for the giant eye on the sky, which will gather light from distant stars and galaxies, will be 39 metres in diameter, made of 798 segments and located on Mount Cerro Armazones in Chile, where it is set to gather 15 times more light than the largest telescopes around today.
With the support of collaborators, including Leicestershire-based technology company Zeeko, the St Asaph team met the ESO compliance figure of < 10 nanometres – over the full optical aperture, the first time it has ever been achieved using computer-operated machinery and which required both the development of a unique polishing process and metrology system.
They are now racing forward in a bid to meet further specifications; the final contract could lead to hundreds of jobs being created when the mirrors are mass produced.
