Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) is the largest university-operated radio observatory. It was established in 1958, and is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
In the 1996 film The Arrival, Zane Zaminsky (Charlie Sheen) and Calvin (Richard Schiff) work at Owens Valley for the SETI Project
In Contact (1997), Eleanor Arroway (Jodie Foster) did her thesis work on the Owens Valley 40-meter telescope.