Working Papers Astronomy and Astrophysics Panel Reports (1991) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Status of the Profession
Status of the Profession
Pages 321-340
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 321... ...
The number of astronomers with jobs in industry, or with long term, non-tenured, jobs has increased dramatically compared with traditional faculty positions. The increase in the number of astronomers and the declining share of the NSF budget going to astronomy has led to extreme difficulties in the NSF grants program and in the support of the National Observatories.
|
From page 322... ...
One of the best ways of estimating the number of astronomers, and of establishing the characteristics of the astronomical community, is to use the membership of the American Astronomical Society. The American Institute of Physics periodically surveys a sample of the AAS Membership, so their characteristics as to age, employer, primary work activity, etc., are known.
|
From page 323... ...
Correcting for multiple authors, Abt concludes that the average AAS member produces the equivalent of one-half of an original research paper per year. However, about a quarter of the AAS members are more than twice as productive as the average, producing the equivalent of one single-author research paper per year.
|
From page 324... ...
Abt and the Astrono~rucal Society of the Pacific Astronomical Society and Astrorzemy and Astrophysics, all showed a shift from purely national papers to the current percentage of 25 percent multi-national papers. International cooperation is quickly becoming the standard way of doing research, just as before 1970, papers by a sole author were the norm, but thereafter papers by multiple authors became usual*
|
From page 325... ...
Results of the Field Committee Report on Personnel Issues The previous Astronomy Survey Committee, chaired by George Field, emphasized that successful basic research is dependent upon an active and vigorous community which can only be maintained through adequate funding of the research infrastructure. The Field committee made two important recommendations with regard to providing long-term, federal funding in astronomy.
|
From page 326... ...
Since their establishment nearly three decades ago, the national observatories, funded by NSF, have provided unrestricted access to first class research telescopes and facilities on the basis of merit. NASA, likewise, has adopted the general policy that observing time should be accessible to anyone in the astronomical community and that use of the space facilities should be awarded on the basis of scientific proposals which are reviewed by a panel of scientific peers.
|
From page 327... ...
The increase in 1984 appears to have resulted from the publication of the Field Committee Report, which noted the sad state of the infrastructure that enables astronomical research to proceed, and recommended an augmentation. Unfortunately, after 1984, the research base at NSF has been eroded year by year.
|
From page 328... ...
In the rest of the Astrophysics Data Program the grant sizes are significantly larger, but still often low enough that multiple grants are required to support a researcher. Behind the rise in the number of grants by NASA is a specific new policy to provide sufficient resources to analyze adequately the data from their space science missions.
|
From page 329... ...
One important trend to emerge hom this anaIys~ of the grants program is the emergence of NASA as the dominant agency in astronomy grant Ending. In lg821 NSF provided almost 60 percent of Ule grant money but in lg89 NASA For the first Ames provided more money For astronomy grants than did the NSF Sluce several large, long-lived missions wad be launched in the early lg90s, NASAL Future spending plans caN For a major increase in the amount of data analysis money which wiD go the community in the Aim of grants.
|
From page 330... ...
Different branches of astronomy have similar problems: In the fifteen years between Einstein and AXAF, American X-ray astronomers will have relied solely on foreign telescopes to make advances in a field they invented. · In centimeter wavelength radio astronomy, the aging VLA is still the supreme instrument, but in the rapidly growing field of millimeter radio astronomy, the IRAM 30 m telescope and the new millimeter arrays in Europe and Japan challenge our leadership in another field we developed.
|
From page 331... ...
Traditionally, an astronomer achieved a permanent job on the tenured faculty at a university or college. Industrial and academic research jobs, with their perceived impermanence and lack of academic freedom, were considered less desirable.
|
From page 332... ...
. , 169.6 79.2 257.7 _ _ _ 267.3 _ ~ 7 ~ , 277.0 _ ~ 294.9 345.2 423.7 US Fraction 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.81 0.71 0.62 0.46 0.50 0.47 0.52 0.50 0.46 0.43 0.61 0.62 0.63 0.65 -0.56 0.64 0.66 0.62 -- 0.57 0.60 0.56 0.55 0.5 In contrast to postdoctoral appointments, which are normally awarded for a short, fixed term, usually two or three years, the research associate position, while still dependent upon outside funding, is available for a longer term.
|
From page 333... ...
Not only is this fact manifested through the large number of papers produced every year, more than one for each member of the astronomical community, but it also emerges from direct surveys of the community. Over half of all AAS members surveyed claim to work primarily on basic research and only 9 percent cite teaching as their primary activity, but another 25 spend a substantial amount of their time in teaching.
|
From page 334... ...
Over time, this erect will average out and should not introduce a significant error into our estimates. Specific studies done for the Field Committee ten years ago found that the attrition rate was greatest immediately after the postdoctoral period.
|
From page 335... ...
The American Astronomical Society publishes a monthly listing of jobs of interest to people trained in astronomy. The AAS Job Register was started in 1977, and in the early eighties a successful effort was made to ensure that it provided a complete listing of astronomy jobs.
|
From page 336... ...
Astronomers could help high schools include contemporary astronomical topics in their courses, as is done in biology and other science courses, rather than limiting astronomical discussion largely to the important historical origins of astronomical thought in centuries past. On the elementary-school and junior-high levels, science courses are usually taught by teachers with little science training.
|
From page 337... ...
Regional informal meetings of astronomers are valuable ways of keeping members of the astronomical community, and their students, in touch with modern astronomical research. Programs at observatories and research institutes to involve undergraduates in summer or term-time programs can be enlarged.
|
From page 338... ...
? omical Society 1990 Membership Survey Preliminary Report, AAS internal report.
|
From page 340... ...
SCIENCE OPPORTUNITIES PANEL ALAN LIGHTMAN, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Chair JOHN N BAHCALL, Institute for Advanced Study, Vice-Chair SALLIE L
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.