Today we live amid the most remarkable age of astronomical discovery in history. The 20th century began with a picture of a tiny static universe, and is ending with evidence that the rate of its vast expansion may be accelerating. It began with knowledge of only our own galaxy of stars, and is ending with the discovery that the many billions of galaxies that make up our universe originated approximately 15 billion years ago from the progressive merger of much smaller entities. It began with no means of answering the centuries old question: are there other solar systems in the universe? and is ending with the spectacular discovery of the first true planetary system around another star. The instruments and observatories that will appear in the early 21st century promise to reveal how planets and stars assemble, how galaxies appear and grow in the universe, how the first stars appeared in our universe, and what the structure of our universe actually is. The central theme of astronomy in this new era will be elucidation of the origins of structure in the universe, from planets to the universe itself.

Canadian astronomers have contributed strongly to this international voyage of exploration. By almost any reckoning, our community ranks among the top three nations in the quality of its astronomical research per capita. The Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) on Mauna Kea in Hawaii was arguably the world's best optical telescope in the last decade. The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) is today making some of the most important new discoveries in radio astronomy. The Canadian Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA) is one of the world's leading astrophysical research centres. Canada's partnership in the twin, Gemini 8 metre class telescopes will contribute to making them among the best in the world. The Canadian Space Agency is poised to make Canada an important player in the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST), the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. In all of these scientific and technical projects, the return to

The sole aim
of science is the glory of the
human spirit.

Gerhard Herzberg,
Canadian Nobel Laureate