Title:     The Square Kilometre Array: Science Update and Opportunities for Maximising

                 Scientific Return

　　Speaker:　 Science Director Robert Braun

　　Time:      Monday, 10:00--12:00Am, October 13th　　

　　Location:  Big meeting room, 3rd floor

　  Abstract:　Although the concept for the SKA has been under development since the early 1990’s, it has finally reached maturity with serious design work now underway and preliminary design reviews scheduled for the coming months. The Science Program of the SKA has also been revisited, and reviews are now underway of more than 140 contributed chapters for a new SKA Science Book that will be published early in 2015. In this talk the current status of the SKA project will be presented, with particular attention to the wide range of science areas in which fundamental scientific contributions can be anticipated, even in its first phase of deployment beginning in 2018. The process by which the highest priority science objectives have been identified will be summarised, and those high priority projects will be briefly described. These high priority objectives may form a set of key science projects to be addressed in the first five years of observatory operations. Opportunities for leadership of, and participation in, SKA key science projects will be outlined.