China Built The World's largest Telescope But has No One to run It

China’s FAST (Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope) is the largest radio telescope in the world, dwarfing the 1,000-foot (305-meter) Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. FAST was a heavy lift for China, with a final price tag of $178 million, and some technical issues that are still being worked out. China opened this huge dish in September 2016 to study the cosmos Now, one of its numerous goals, it will be used to look for signals from extraterrestrial life and study black holes.there are reports that China is having trouble finding someone to oversee the telescope and its operation, and may turn to foreigners to help fill the gap.

They’ve been advertising the job of chief scientist for an annual salary of $1.2 million, but there have been no takers to apply so far. It’s reported that China was looking for a foreigner because no astronomer at home had the expertise to run the telescope a human resources official at the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), which owns the telescope, told the South China Morning Post. “Candidates can be of any nationality, any race.”

For many, that could be an exciting opportunity. However, Ars Technica notes that there are only about 40 people in the world who could fit with the requirements for the job opportunity. 

If it does run smoothly, FAST should be very useful. Its huge collecting power will enable it to collect radio waves from distant sources, much like the Arecibo observatory did in the US.

Global Times reports "The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) denied US media reports that China plans to hire a foreigner to run the world's largest radio telescope in Southwest China's Guizhou Province. The CAS said on its Sina Weibo account on Saturday that no such recruitment exists for the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in Pingtang county, Southwest China's Guizhou Province, and that the post of FAST chief scientist was filled when the project was launched in July 2016. However, the CAS has not identified the chief scientist. "

“Having a more sensitive telescope, we can receive weaker and more distant radio messages,” CAS Director-General Wu Xiangping said in 2015. “It will help us to search for intelligent life outside of the galaxy and explore the origins of the universe.”