Researchers reel from defunding of only UC-owned observatory

[bananas]

http://www.dailycal.org/2014/09/02/facing-waning-future/

Facing a waning future
Researchers reel from defunding of only UC-owned observatory
By Virgie Hoban | Senior Staff

Alex Filippenko feels betrayed.

The world-renowned astronomer and nine-time winner of UC Berkeley’s best professor award is sitting behind a plate of steaming hot food, but he’s too worked up to eat.

“I’ve been a loyal faculty member here for about three decades, despite many more lucrative offers from private institutions that I’ve rejected in part because of my great support in the principle of a great public university,” Filippenko said during an interview in May. “That’s what hurts — I feel betrayed. I feel betrayed by the University of California. I feel betrayed by the Office of the President.”

His sense of betrayal stems from the university’s abrupt decision last year to terminate all funding for the university’s only fully owned observatory — the only one where graduate students and postdoctoral scholars from across the UC system can design and execute their own research projects.

For Filippenko and others, Lick Observatory, perched just east of San Jose, California, on Mount Hamilton, represents the university’s fundamental contract with the people of California to cultivate the next generation of scientists and humanists. Yet, last September, to the outrage of many UC astronomers, students and lawmakers, the UC Office of the President announced it would be withdrawing all funds from the observatory by 2018 to shift these resources to newer facilities like the Thirty Meter Telescope, a $1.2 billion international collaboration currently under construction.

<snip>

[bananas]

1. Its Time For More Reboot Projects: Save the Greenbank Telescope

http://nasawatch.com/archives/2014/09/its-time-for-a.html

Its Time For More Reboot Projects
By Keith Cowing on September 7, 2014 1:22 PM. 4 Comments

Researchers reel from defunding of only UC-owned observatory, The Daily Californian

"[Alex] Filippenko and other researchers blame fellow astronomer Steven Beckwith, the former UC vice president of research and graduate studies, for inappropriately acting on personal biases against Lick Observatory. Beckwith, Filippenko pointed out, is a former director of the Space Telescope Science Institute and has publicly belittled the merits of ground-based telescopes, such as those at Lick, in comparison to space-based instruments, such as Hubble telescope. "The guy has openly expressed in rather contemptuous ways his lack of interest in ground-based telescopes," said Garth Illingworth, a UC Santa Cruz professor of astronomy. "He views himself as a person to choose the direction of UC astronomy like a CEO in a company. But that's not his job." ... In June 2013, the UCO Board recommended the university terminate all funding for Lick. Following suit, UCOP will implement a "glide path" for Lick in 2016, phasing out all funding from $1.3 million to zero by 2018."

Save the Greenbank Telescope, Greenbriar Valley Economic Development Corporation

"On August 14, 2012, the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Astronomical Sciences Portfolio Review Committee issued a report entitled: Advancing Astronomy in the Coming Decade; Opportunities and Challenges. In that report, the NSF recommended that two NRAO instruments, the GBT and the Very Long Based Array (VLBA) in New Mexico, be fully divested from the NSF Astronomy Division's research facilities portfolio within five years."

[riqster]

2. Kick for visibility.

[xocet]

3. K & R n/t

[blkmusclmachine]

4. ,

,