AUSTIN, Texas — Jan. 13, 2026 – GMTO Corporation — the international consortium building the world’s most powerful telescope, the Giant Magellan — today announced it has appointed The University of Texas at Austin’s Daniel T. Jaffe as president. He is one of two UT astronomers recently named to key leadership positions. Taft Armandroff, director of the McDonald Observatory, was elected in November to chair the GMTO board of director.
The appointments come at a pivotal time, as the Giant Magellan Telescope continues to gain momentum as one of the most ambitious research projects in all of science.
“Texas Astronomy, much like the state it calls home, has built a reputation for big ideas and bold follow-through,” said Jaffe, a professor of astronomy who served as UT’s vice president for research for almost 10 years. “Our research has expanded humanity’s understanding of the cosmos, while our instruments have advanced the limits of what we can observe. Once complete, the Giant Magellan Telescope will be an incredible asset to continue this work, both for astronomers here at UT and our fellow GMT institution Texas A&M, for Texas astronomy more broadly and for our partners across the globe.”
Brian Schmidt, a Nobel laureate and vice chair of the Giant Magellan Telescope board of directors, said Jaffe emerged from an international search as a leader uniquely qualified to guide the Giant Magellan Telescope forward.
“He brings a rare combination of scientific excellence, world-leading expertise in building astronomical instruments, and a proven ability to lead international research initiatives,” said Schmidt, a distinguished professor of astronomy and former vice chancellor and president of the Australian National University. “He has secured major federally funded research centers and knows how to grow projects through public-private partnerships, making him ideally suited to guide the Giant Magellan Telescope through its next phase of construction.”
The Giant Magellan Telescope is currently under construction in the mountains of Chile’s Atacama Desert. Its seven mirrors, each measuring 8.4 meters (27.6 feet) in diameter, will allow astronomers to see farther into space and with greater clarity than any other optical telescope before it. When complete, it will have 10 times the light collecting area and four times the spatial resolution of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and will be up to 200 times as powerful as existing research telescopes.
UT is a founding partner in this endeavor, providing crucial funding and expertise in the telescope’s construction, and Jaffe was the lead scientist behind a key instrument for the project: the Giant Magellan Telescope Near-Infrared Spectrograph (GMTNIRS), which will revolutionize the study of planetary system formation, small stars and other near-infrared objects. When the Giant Magellan begins operations during the coming decade, it will provide Texas students, researchers and faculty members the opportunity to make groundbreaking discoveries.
Now, with two leadership positions filled by UT Austin astronomers, the telescope’s Texas connections and contributions grow stronger. Jaffe will replace Robert N. Shelton, who announced his retirement from the role of Giant Magellan Telescope president last year.
Jaffe served as vice president for research at UT from 2016 to 2025 and brings extensive expertise in leading a large research enterprise and fostering collaboration across institutions. Before that, he served as chair of UT’s Astronomy Department from 2011 to 2015. Jaffe is widely recognized for developing advanced astronomical instrumentation that enhances telescope performance. His research group pioneered the manufacture and use of micromachined silicon diffractive immersion gratings for high-resolution spectroscopy, a technology that has reshaped modern instrument design.
Jaffe has developed devices used on both ground-based telescopes and space-based observatories, including telescopes at McDonald Observatory and NASA’s JWST.
“Dan brings decades of leadership in research, astronomy instrumentation, public-private partnerships and academia,” Armandroff said. “His deep understanding of the Giant Magellan Telescope, combined with his experience leading large research enterprises and cultivating a collaborative environment, make him exceptionally well suited to lead GMTO through its next phase of construction and toward operations.”
In June 2025, the NSF advanced the observatory into its Final Design Phase, one of the last steps before becoming eligible for federal construction funding. The recent addition of Northwestern University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to GMTO’s international consortium of 15 total institutions underscores the observatory’s status as a priority for astronomical research.
“I am honored to lead the Giant Magellan Telescope at this exciting stage,” Jaffe said. “I look forward to working with our consortium partners and the U.S. government to advance construction. For me, as for the U.S. astronomical community and our international partners, the Giant Magellan Telescope represents a profound leap in our ability to explore the universe and employ a host of new technologies to make fundamental discoveries.”
