145
end up owning his own house in a good neighbourhood. It is curious to
observe how the same thing has happened with the IAC. We shall see how the
evolution of the successive headquarters of the IAC corresponded to the consolidation of its fortunes.
At the end of the sixties, as an already permanent adjunct lecturer, I asked
for an office in the University of La Laguna and was only offered a kind of
attic that had previously been used as a lumber room. I cleaned, painted, and
converted it into a pleasant and comfortable workspace. This was the operational headquarters from which I started.
When I became a professor, the Instituto Universitario de Astrofísica was
created and I was given a bigger space in the recently constructed Chemistry
Tower. The headquarters were moved to this new site, with space for some
offices and laboratories. The Institute’s primitive workshop was set up in the
basement, which is where our dedication to self-made instrumentation began
to take shape. This space was to be the location where the present workshops
of the University of La Laguna originated.
In 1975 the IAC Consortium was established, and the Island Cabildo of
Tenerife donated a site in the former Carretera de La Esperanza, the road leading to the Teide National Park and Teide Observatory. The Cabildo itself
funded a number of red-roofed uralite huts, of the sort that were being used
for provisional schools. We set up the brand-new Institute right there in the
huts: offices for astronomers, directorate and administration, a lecture room,
and a computer centre (something completely new in the Canaries). Other
huts were set aside for the mechanics and electronics workshops. We surrounded these simple, ugly, and cold buildings with pretty gardens and we
furnished them simply and practically. When it was all finished it seemed like
paradise to us. It gave us a sense of identity and cohesion. We were still very
few at the time, perhaps twenty-five, and contact was direct and friendly. The
work and scientific and technical discussions often continued into the night
in the bars of La Laguna frequented by University people. I think of El Buho
(‘The Owl’) as a nocturnal IAC. There you could always meet any of our
astrophysicists when they were not observing up the mountain. We all look
back on those days with nostalgia.
Our Instituto de Astrofísica, together with the Institute of Natural Products,
which now bears the name of its founder, Antonio González, were the seeds
from which sprang today’s Science Campus of the University of La Laguna.
The Campus now hosts the Faculties of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry,
Biology, Pharmacy, and the Higher School of Engineering and Technology
and is located in the Avenida Astrofísico Francisco Sánchez (formerly the road
to La Esperanza).
15 The IAC: A Dream Come True (1971–Present)
end up owning his own house in a good neighbourhood. It is curious to
observe how the same thing has happened with the IAC. We shall see how the
evolution of the successive headquarters of the IAC corresponded to the consolidation of its fortunes.
At the end of the sixties, as an already permanent adjunct lecturer, I asked
for an office in the University of La Laguna and was only offered a kind of
attic that had previously been used as a lumber room. I cleaned, painted, and
converted it into a pleasant and comfortable workspace. This was the operational headquarters from which I started.
When I became a professor, the Instituto Universitario de Astrofísica was
created and I was given a bigger space in the recently constructed Chemistry
Tower. The headquarters were moved to this new site, with space for some
offices and laboratories. The Institute’s primitive workshop was set up in the
basement, which is where our dedication to self-made instrumentation began
to take shape. This space was to be the location where the present workshops
of the University of La Laguna originated.
In 1975 the IAC Consortium was established, and the Island Cabildo of
Tenerife donated a site in the former Carretera de La Esperanza, the road leading to the Teide National Park and Teide Observatory. The Cabildo itself
funded a number of red-roofed uralite huts, of the sort that were being used
for provisional schools. We set up the brand-new Institute right there in the
huts: offices for astronomers, directorate and administration, a lecture room,
and a computer centre (something completely new in the Canaries). Other
huts were set aside for the mechanics and electronics workshops. We surrounded these simple, ugly, and cold buildings with pretty gardens and we
furnished them simply and practically. When it was all finished it seemed like
paradise to us. It gave us a sense of identity and cohesion. We were still very
few at the time, perhaps twenty-five, and contact was direct and friendly. The
work and scientific and technical discussions often continued into the night
in the bars of La Laguna frequented by University people. I think of El Buho
(‘The Owl’) as a nocturnal IAC. There you could always meet any of our
astrophysicists when they were not observing up the mountain. We all look
back on those days with nostalgia.
Our Instituto de Astrofísica, together with the Institute of Natural Products,
which now bears the name of its founder, Antonio González, were the seeds
from which sprang today’s Science Campus of the University of La Laguna.
The Campus now hosts the Faculties of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry,
Biology, Pharmacy, and the Higher School of Engineering and Technology
and is located in the Avenida Astrofísico Francisco Sánchez (formerly the road
to La Esperanza).
15 The IAC: A Dream Come True (1971–Present)