219
cause of bringing the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) to the
Canaries. But that is another story that will be told in due course.
We of course pushed ahead with our efforts to build the telescope. Among
other things, I dedicated my efforts to extolling the scientific, technological,
and strategic virtues of the project to important people, including the Prince
of Asturias (Honorary Astrophysicist of the IAC). I am told that Mrs Aguirre
complained about my campaign and accused me of hounding her. Try as we
might, we could not succeed in breaking the Minister’s veto. But I have never
taken no for an answer (‘He who holds out carries the day’, as Cela used
to say).
In 1998 President Aznar established the Science and Technology Office
(OCYT), answerable to the Presidency of the Government to centralize the
greater part of R&D activities. Fernando Aldana, a lecturer at the Polytechnic
University of Madrid, was appointed its head. We were fortunate to have
known him previously, for he had once visited us as a senior representative of
the Ministry of Education and Culture. He arrived at Tenerife, as he himself
said, filled with antibodies against the IAC. During his visit he was ‘converted’. He said he had been warned that the IAC and its projects were all
show, led by ‘a public menace, a devil complete with tail and horns’; but when
he met us and could talk freely with us, when he got to know us better, he saw
things as they really were. He became convinced that the IAC’s large telescope
would produce the best and greatest impact on R&D that Spain could hope
for, and that the IAC was amply capable of seeing it through.
In the end Aldana did manage, on the quiet it seems, to get Aznar to
approve the project. In October 1998, the General State Administration
joined GRANTECAN, S.A., and appointed as advisers to the company were:
Adana himself; Pascual Fernández, Director General of Budgetary Analysis
and Scheduling of the Economy and Treasury Ministry (to which FEDER
funds were directly answerable); Elisa Robles, Director General of Industry
and Technology of the Ministry of Industry and Energy (she would later
become Minister of the Economy and Treasury); and Tomás García-Cuenca,
Director General of Higher Education and Research of the Ministry of
Education and Culture. Representing the Canarian Government were three
of its councillors: José Carlos Francisco of the Treasury; José Mendoza of
Education and Culture; and Francisco de la Barreda of Industry and Energy.
I itemize all of this to underline the weight that decisions of the Administrative
Council of GRANTECAN (which in 1998 Pascual Fernández would go on
to chair) carried at that moment. At last, the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC)
figured formally in the General State Budget for 1999. Owing to the inherent
inertia of the state budget towards any alteration of its structure, GRANTECAN
21 The Biggest, Most Advanced Telescope in the World (1989–Present)
cause of bringing the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) to the
Canaries. But that is another story that will be told in due course.
We of course pushed ahead with our efforts to build the telescope. Among
other things, I dedicated my efforts to extolling the scientific, technological,
and strategic virtues of the project to important people, including the Prince
of Asturias (Honorary Astrophysicist of the IAC). I am told that Mrs Aguirre
complained about my campaign and accused me of hounding her. Try as we
might, we could not succeed in breaking the Minister’s veto. But I have never
taken no for an answer (‘He who holds out carries the day’, as Cela used
to say).
In 1998 President Aznar established the Science and Technology Office
(OCYT), answerable to the Presidency of the Government to centralize the
greater part of R&D activities. Fernando Aldana, a lecturer at the Polytechnic
University of Madrid, was appointed its head. We were fortunate to have
known him previously, for he had once visited us as a senior representative of
the Ministry of Education and Culture. He arrived at Tenerife, as he himself
said, filled with antibodies against the IAC. During his visit he was ‘converted’. He said he had been warned that the IAC and its projects were all
show, led by ‘a public menace, a devil complete with tail and horns’; but when
he met us and could talk freely with us, when he got to know us better, he saw
things as they really were. He became convinced that the IAC’s large telescope
would produce the best and greatest impact on R&D that Spain could hope
for, and that the IAC was amply capable of seeing it through.
In the end Aldana did manage, on the quiet it seems, to get Aznar to
approve the project. In October 1998, the General State Administration
joined GRANTECAN, S.A., and appointed as advisers to the company were:
Adana himself; Pascual Fernández, Director General of Budgetary Analysis
and Scheduling of the Economy and Treasury Ministry (to which FEDER
funds were directly answerable); Elisa Robles, Director General of Industry
and Technology of the Ministry of Industry and Energy (she would later
become Minister of the Economy and Treasury); and Tomás García-Cuenca,
Director General of Higher Education and Research of the Ministry of
Education and Culture. Representing the Canarian Government were three
of its councillors: José Carlos Francisco of the Treasury; José Mendoza of
Education and Culture; and Francisco de la Barreda of Industry and Energy.
I itemize all of this to underline the weight that decisions of the Administrative
Council of GRANTECAN (which in 1998 Pascual Fernández would go on
to chair) carried at that moment. At last, the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC)
figured formally in the General State Budget for 1999. Owing to the inherent
inertia of the state budget towards any alteration of its structure, GRANTECAN
21 The Biggest, Most Advanced Telescope in the World (1989–Present)