arXiv:physics/0604144v1 [physics.soc-ph] 18 Apr 2006 France rfso,adtoo eue oiin:AscaePro- Associate Assistant positions: tenured and of Lecturer two positions: and track two Professor, are tenure There of States. the United ranks the over of modifications system academic minor rent few a (with past 1983, in ward and research control own activ- their marginal these directions. pursue only to in independence had limited them members rather those support but did Severa ities members institutions. their staff in major junior priori- directions all teaching research made and both po- They ties to their retirement. related held of decisions AA&SP, administrative age of the areas until various sition pursuing the departments few in cor- university The research the of as number numerous etc.). responding as Mechanics, typically Professors, Classical fields astronomy Astronomy, research was specific It in style. Professors (i.e. German of “Chairs” the on followed based Greece in system only sity and Universities or in Institutes Research are with 1) associated Observatories. is Fig. of fraction 3, small majority a the Sect. fixed-term Currently (see or them typically positions. track, are tenure associate employed AA&SP permanent, research in are research in who do servants individuals or civil teach the to Thus time operat- full private are Greece. no AA&SP in currently in future ing though institutions near research Even the or pub- academic in Institutes. within change may Research fostered this been and and has Universities Astrophysics Greece lic Astronomy, in Physics in Space activity research and Eu- other from different been too countries. have not ropean is – Greece (AA&SP) in Physics Astronomy,functioning to Space document in the and research of Astrophysics rest performing the individuals in loosely indicate rather used be will lcrncades [email protected] address: Electronic 1 h nvriysse rsnl npaewsptfor- put was place in presently system University The Univer- the of structure the 1980s early the until Up educational the Europe, in countries other most in As that term a – astronomers which within framework The ae ob ulse n“raiain n taeisi Ast in Strategies and L “Organizations using in typeset Preprint published be to Paper hrhu soie bevtied ai,F704 Paris F-75014, Paris, de Observatoire Associ´e, Chercheur ∼ ae ob ulse n“raiain n taeisi As in Strategies and “Organizations in published be to Paper 5yas n a tutr iia otecur- the to similar structure a has and years) 25 osbtnit l susmnind oeo h iw pres views such. the as of headings: treated Subject be some should rela mentioned, thus astron topics issues and Greek all upon of substantiate distribution touch the to I on institutio a statistics history, the some Greece. their present present of within briefly notes available some I currently with along Greece. research, in pursuing Physics Space and ntepeetdcmn eiwtecretorganizational current the review I document present the In 1. nvriyo rt,Dprmn fPyis .O o 28 G 2208, Box O. P. Physics, of Department Crete, of University A INTRODUCTION T E SRNM,ATOHSC PC HSC NGREECE IN PHYSICS SPACE & ASTROPHYSICS ASTRONOMY, tl mltajv 6/22/04 v. emulateapj style X aslsCharmandaris Vassilis ABSTRACT l , rnm o.7 d .Hc,20,Srne,Dordrecht.” Springer, 2006, Heck, A. Ed. 7, Vol. – tronomy ooy–Vl ,E.A ek 06 pigr Dordrecht.” Springer, 2006, Heck, A. Ed. 7, Vol. – ronomy o nqet ree si loapasfreapein Korea example in for and appears system also is it academic phenomenon as French this institu- Greece, the that the academic to though on unique in note and not should horizons performed We research research tions. new has of it of phe- quality consequences this opening the discuss negative both to serious on beyond document the is present and mat- It the nomenon alma of their positions. scope from permanent the away obtaining years before of spend couple ter not did a did and than institute of who more same alumni 70% the past over in are dissertation today well their members Even where staff time. Greece permanent the in their at institutions staff are of which there number Thessaloniki, largest and the Athens in had in prevalent institutions more older was the inbreeding”, a “academic was phenomenon, as This there known universities, “within”. past from same were hiring the of disproportional positions of most these students since obtained graduate addition, who In direc- individuals future astrophysics. the the to modern background field of the research tion of their relevance faculty, or on the potential based and of mostly responsibilities than teaching rather the disproportional a to giving this or criteria emphasis reasons with for social and evaluation on strict mostly The very based not often ranks. of was consid- higher though completion were process at PhD, the tenure a upon for had already ered Lecturer who of Others, so- PhD. rank their the the – level at junior tenure obtained in automatically time appointments, “Assistant” the affiliated called at already result universities were a who the As individuals with on hired. of provision be number no to large faculty was a the there of 1980’s, distribution age early the the in place took graduate supervise own and students. his/her courses, Professor. pursue teach Assistant principle direction, in research of can, level faculty the university at A years after evaluation three is the successful promotion spending upon years obtained for three is applying Tenure of before next. minimum rank each A on Professor. required Full and fessor isi h eihr ftecutyddntsffrmuch suffer not did country the universi- of Greek periphery the States. in United ties the in absent practically 2 oee,we hscag nteaaei system academic the in change this when However, e:Sine1 eebr19:Vl 8.n.5397 no. 282. Vol. 1998: December 18 Science See: mr.Ee huheeyatmti made is attempt every though Even omers. ela h ao srnmclfacilities astronomical major the as well s ne aeieial esnltouch personal a inevitably have ented e ogaut tde nGec and Greece in studies graduate to ted 1 sweepoesoa srnmr are astronomers professional where ns tutr fAtooy Astrophysics Astronomy, of structure -10,Hrkin Greece Heraklion, R-71003, 2 u tis it but , 2 from this problem for two reasons. Either they had not ficial advisory committee to the Greek Government for produced their own PhDs due to their youth as institu- all matters relevant to Astronomical and Astrophysical tions, or their faculty made a conscious decision to have a research, in 1957. It is the official body, responsible for broader perspective in their hiring process. For example, the promotion and coordination of Astronomy in Greece in the Department of Physics of the University of Crete, and for all matters related to international astronomi- where the author is currently employed, only 1 out of the cal cooperation. The Minister of Development selects 33 faculty members obtained his PhD from this institu- the members of GNCA and appoints them for a term of tion. All these political decisions had implications that two years. Its official seat is the National Observatory continue to affect the evolution of Greek astronomy, and of Athens. Since 1995, GNCA does not have its own academic system in general, well into the 21st century. budget, but obtains its funding from the budget of the Research Institutes in Greece have a similar struc- General Secretariat of Research and Technology (GSRT) ture to the Universities, with also four ranks, which are of the Ministry of Development. The GNCA has the loosely indicated as Researcher-D, -C, -B and -A. Each following principal objectives: researcher also has to remain in a given rank for a mini- mum of three years and tenure is obtained upon promo- • To co-ordinate and promote the various astronom- tion from Researcher-C to Researcher-B. Research Insti- ical activities in Greece, including research and ed- tutes can not award academic degrees and as a result ucation. close collaboration with a University is needed in order • To act as the link between the Greek astronomi- for a researcher to be able to co-supervise students. cal community and the International Astronomical Public funding for development of infrastructures, di- Union (IAU), officially representing Greece in the rect support of research in astronomy, or fellowships to- General Assembly of the IAU. wards graduate studies in the field, has been traditionally fairly limited. Such a low level support is not restricted • To facilitate the advancement of international col- to Greek astronomy but it is also the case in most dis- laboration between Greek and foreign astronomers ciplines. In 2004 Greece spent only 0.58% of its Gross and research groups. Domestic Product (GDP) in R&D, which brings Greece as a nation in the last place among the 15 EU countries Besides the IAU, GNCA has taken responsibility for in this category, a position it holds for the past 5 years. Greece’s representation to the Board of Directors of the At over the same period the European Union (EU) av- journal ”Astronomy and Astrophysics” (and its financial erage was 1.95%, more than 3 times higher3. As a result contributions), to the European Joint Organization for the possibilities for Greek astronomers to join large inter- Solar Observations (JOSO) and, recently, to the Euro- national collaborative projects, or just to obtain support pean Union FP6, I3, Network OPTICON (see Sect. 8). to attend scientific meetings outside Greece have been The board of GNCA consists of five ordinary and five scarce. Even though the situation has recently improved substitute members. The current (2005-2007) ordinary over the past decade, and the possibilities – mostly via members are Prof. P. Laskarides (Chair - Univ. of the financial and organizational support of the European Athens), Prof. T. Krimigis (Vice Chair - Academy of Union – are more numerous, the effects of this low level Athens), Dr. I. Daglis (Nat. Obs. of Athens), Prof. national funding can be seen in most indices quantifying N. Kylafis (Univ. of Crete), and Prof. J.H. Seiradakis the overall astronomy scientific output from Greece. It (Univ. of Thessaloniki). The substitute members over is worth noting that Greece, which joined the European the same period are: Prof. S. Avgoloupis (Univ. of Union as the 10th member in 1981, is still not a member Thessaloniki), Dr. E. Dara (Academy of Athens), Prof. state of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and M. Kafatos (George Mason Univ., USA), Prof. A. Nin- only joined the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2005. dos (Univ. of Ioannina), and Prof. J. Papamastorakis (Univ. of Crete). 2. GOVERNING BODIES The policies that directly affect issues related to 2.2. The Hellenic Astronomical Society (Hel.A.S.) AA&SP in Greece are determined by the Ministry of The Hellenic Astronomical Society (Hel.A.S.5) exists Development, in particular the General Secretariat for for nearly 15 years and it is the major association of Research and Technology, and the Ministry of Educa- professional astronomers in Greece. Its overall structure tion. The first has administrative control over the re- and operation is similar to other national societies such as search institutes and astronomy infrastructure and the the “American Astronomical Society” in the US, or the latter controls the national university system. “Soci´et´eFran¸caise d’ Astronomie et d’Astrophysique” in Greek astronomers can express their opinion or shape France. policies on issues related AA&SP via the Greek National Historically, the first serious attempt to establish a Hel- Committee for Astronomy (GNCA) or the Hellenic As- lenic Astronomical Society was undertaken in 1982 dur- tronomical Society (Hel.A.S.). ing the XVIII General Assembly of the International As- tronomical Union, which took place in Patras, Greece. 2.1. The Greek National Committee for Astronomy There, during several meetings, a dozen astronomers (GNCA) gathered in order to put the foundations of the long The Greek National Committee for Astronomy sought Society. The following years progress was slow (GNCA4) was established, by Royal Decree, as the of- even though material necessary for setting up the frame- work for the Society was being collected. It was much 3 Source EUROSTAT in http://europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat/ 4 The web page of GNCA is: http://www.astro.noa.gr/∼gnca 5 The web page of Hel.A.S. is http://www.astro.auth.gr/elaset 3

Fig. 1.— Distribution of tenured and tenure track astronomers in the major research institutes in Greece. The total number of astronomers included in this study is 107. later, in November 1991, when Prof. P. Laskarides (Univ. Laskarides (Univ. of Athens) as the president and Prof. of Athens) issued the first announcement of the 1st Hel- D. Hatzidimitriou (Univ. of Crete), Prof. K. Tsinganos lenic Astronomical Conference, that the idea of the es- (Univ. of Athens), Prof. V. Geroyannis (Univ. of Pa- tablishment of an Astronomical Society was formally put tras), Prof. K. Kokkotas (Univ. of Thessaloniki) and forward again. With the help of several colleagues Prof. Prof. X. Moussas (Univ. of Athens) as members. The J.H. Seiradakis (Univ. of Thessaloniki) drafted the first auditors for the same period are Prof. E. Danezis (Univ. Constitution for the Society. The final version was pre- of Athens), Prof. E. Mavromichalaki (Univ. of Athens) sented to the participants of the 1st Hellenic Astronom- and Dr. E. Xilouris (National Obs. of Athens) ical Conference, which was held in Athens in September The Hellenic Astronomical Society has been very ac- 1992. tive and currently has 272 members, 27% of which live During the Athens Conference, several astronomers be- and work outside Greece. It has been recognized as an came founding members of the Hellenic Astronomical So- Affiliated Member of the European Astronomical Society ciety. A few more founding members signed the Consti- (EAS) and has established links with other international tution during the next weeks bringing the total number astronomical societies. It has been organizing a major of founding members to sixty six (66). Following the science meeting every two years and in the summer of appropriate legal procedures, the Hellenic Astronomical 1997 organized the Joint European and National Astro- Society (Hel.A.S.) was recognized by the Court of Jus- nomical Meeting (JENAM-97). tice in Athens on May 25 1993. The appointed Council of Hel.A.S. became aware of the verdict of the Court 3. ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS of Justice in June 1993. The President of the Council, 3.1. Prof. B. Barbanis (Univ. of Thessaloniki), assisted by Human Resources in Astronomy, Astrophysics & the members initiated the procedure for the first elec- Space Physics tions of Hel.A.S. In the elections, which took place on As one would expect, since more than half of the popu- June 2nd 1994, participated 83% of the founding mem- lation in Greece is concentrated in the Athens and Thes- bers. saloniki metro areas, most of the astronomers in Greece According to its Constitution the Governing Council are also associated with institutes located in these two of Hel.A.S. consists of a President, six (6) members and cities. This is depicted in Figure 1 where the fraction of three (3) auditors. The Council is elected for a two-year tenured and tenure track astronomy faculty in the major term and an individual cannot serve on it for more than AA&SP institutions in Greece is presented. two consecutive terms. The candidates for the Council An additional issue, which affects the current state and must be members of Hel.A.S. who live and work perma- has direct implications to the future of Greek astronomy, nently in Greece during the term of their candidacy and is related to the age distribution of Greek professional at least 42% of them should be affiliated with institutions astronomers. In Figure 2, a histogram of 135 astronomers outside the Athens metro area. The current Council, working in Greece is presented, using the database of the whose mandate ends in June 2006, consists of Prof. P. members of the Hellenic Astronomical Society, as well as ancillary information collected by the author. The study 4

Fig. 2.— A histogram of the age distribution of astronomers in Greece in 2006. The vertical line indicates the 67th year of age which is the current compulsory retirement age for civil servants. was limited to individuals over the age of 30, since this we will know the answer to these questions! is typically the age when one is competitive for tenure Another topic worth touching upon is gender diversity track or long term research associate positions. Some in Greek astronomy. At the time of writing this report individuals over the retirement age of 67, who are on an 13% of the permanent or tenure track astronomy posi- emeritus-type position and/or still active, were included tions in Greece were held by women. This percentage is in the analysis. The error on a single 5-year bin is of the less than in France6, which leads the way with ∼26%, or order of 5% but it is very likely that the values of bins at in Italy, Russia and Spain, all above 15%, but higher than ages greater than 55 are somewhat underestimated. This the fraction of female astronomers in the United States is due to the fact that there are a number of individuals which is ∼10%. We should note though, that only re- who formally have a tenured astronomy positions but as cently one female astronomer in Greece reached for the they are no longer active they were not included in the first time the highest possible academic rank (Full Pro- database of Hel.A.S, on which analysis was based. fessor or Researcher A), a statistic that will hopefully Inspection of Figure 2 clearly reveals that almost 30% improve very soon. of Greek astronomers are near or over the age of 60. This was a direct consequence of the legislative changes that 3.2. took place in Greece in the early 1980s mentioned in Research in Astronomy, Astrophysics & Space Sect. 1. Furthermore, statistics over the last 10 years in- Physics dicate that on average there were less than 3 new tenure The latest organized effort to map the research activity track astronomy position openings per year in the coun- in AA&SP in the various institutes in Greece took place try, including both universities and research institutions. in 1998. Dr. E. Kontizas, as the president of GNCA at The fraction of astronomers near the age of retirement is the time, appointed an international six-member com- even larger if we were to consider only the two older uni- mittee, chaired by Prof. Y. Terzian (Cornell Univ., versities of Athens and Thessaloniki. This implies that USA), to report on the status of astronomy in Greece within the next 5 to 10 years a large number of their and propose recommendations for the future. The re- current faculty members will retire and they will have port7 was presented during the workshop “Astronomy to be replaced in a very short time scale. This will be 2000+: Greek Prospects for the 21st Century” which an interesting challenge for Greek astronomy. Will it be took place at the National Observatory of Athens on possible for these institutions to find enough, well quali- November 1998. The description presented in the fol- fied, candidates from the available pool of post-docs and lowing paragraphs draws from material included in this research associates for their needs? Will they be forced 6 to lower their hiring standards in order to hire faculty for The percentages for the other countries mentioned are based on the 2003 report by Dr. Florence Dur- their teaching needs, or they will be able to hire with a ret (Institute d’Astrophysique de Paris, France) available at: lower pace, being selective and identifying the key scien- http://www2.iap.fr/sf2a/courrier.html tific research areas they should be investing in? In 2016 7 The complete “Terzian Report” is available at: http://www.astro.noa.gr/gnca/NEWS/ca-report2000.htm 5 report with some modifications mostly related to changes DFM engineering (USA) has an f/3 focal ratio and it is in the human resources of the institutes involved. mainly used for educational activities. There are eight institutions in Greece with Depart- In addition to the pursuit of astronomy, it should also ments or Sections devoted to teaching and research in be mentioned that the faculty of the Physics Department Astronomy and Astrophysics. Three are located in have been involved over many years in building a deep Athens: the largest is the Section within the Department sea High Energy Neutrino telescope, known as NESTOR. of Physics of the National Kapodistrian University, fol- Recently this effort has been put under the auspices of lowed by the National Observatory of Athens, and an the National Observatory of Athens as an independent astronomy Section of the national Academy of Athens. institute for Astroparticle Physics (see Sect. 3.2.2). In Thessaloniki there is a very small group within the Faculty of Engineering (Polytechnic School) and a con- 3.2.2. National Observatory of Athens siderably larger one within the Department of Physics The National Observatory of Athens (NOA8) was of the Aristotle University. In Crete there is a Section founded in 1842 and is the oldest research institute in of Astrophysics and Space Physics in the Department Greece. It currently consists of five institutes three of of Physics in Heraklion, while the Universities of Patras which, the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the and Ioannina each have small Astronomy groups within Institute for Space Applications and Remote Sensing and either their Physics or Engineering Departments. Some the Institute of Astroparticle Physics – Nestor, conduct research activity in very specific areas (i.e. cosmology research in AA&SP. The current director of NOA is Prof. or general relativity) also exists in a few Departments C. Zerefos. of Mathematics but the numbers of permanent staff are The Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics has 11 very small and there is no critical mass to be considered permanent staff scientists as well as research associates groups. and support personnel. Their research interests include The principal institutions devoted to research and a variety of topics in extragalactic astronomy, observa- technical development in space sciences is the Depart- tional cosmology, interstellar matter, X-ray astronomy, ment of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the and binary stars. The Institute supports the Astronom- “Democritus” University of Thrace (in particular the ical Observatory in Kryoneri as well as the new Chel- Laboratory of Space Electrodynamics in the Section of mos Observatory where the new 2.3m “Aristarchos” tele- Telecommunications and Space Science) and the Insti- scope, the largest in Greece, is located (see Sect. 4.1, tute for Space Applications and Remote Sensing of the 4.3). The institute is also very active in public outreach National Observatory of Athens. Significant research in activities, among which are the operation of a Visitor ground based ionospheric and atmospheric work is also Center and an annual summer school, which introduces a component of the overall Astrophysics and Space Sci- basic concepts of modern astrophysics to high-school stu- ence Section at the University of Crete. Activity relat- dents since 1996. The current director of the Institute is ing to space science also exists in the Section of Astron- Prof. C. Goudis. omy, Astrophysics, and Mechanics of the University of The Institute for Space Applications and Remote Sens- Athens, and at the Research Center for Astronomy in ing has 11 tenure or tenure track research staff. The ac- the Academy of Athens. tivities of the Institute encompass a wide area in Space In the following subsections we present a brief descrip- Research and Applications. Its main objective is to tion of the various institutes in Greece hosting research carry out R&D projects in these fields, which include groups with active research in AA&SP. More detailed an- Remote Sensing, Telecommunications, Space and Iono- nual activity reports from most institutions and groups spheric Physics. Additional activities include the sys- are being collected by the Greek National Committee for tematic collection and processing of data derived from Astronomy and they are made available from its web site observations made either from the earth or space as well mentioned in section 2.1. as the performance of autonomous studies in other spe- 3.2.1. University of Athens cific subjects of space research and applications. The In- stitute is equipped with satellite and ionospheric ground The “National & Kapodistrian” University of Athens stations, various RF and electronic test and measurement was founded in 1837, soon after the independence of equipment, as well as an advanced computing center con- Greece. It was the first University in Greece as well as nected to international networks. The current director of in the Balkan Peninsula and the whole eastern Mediter- the Institute is Dr. I. Daglis. ranean region. The Department of Physics was created in The Institute of Astroparticle Physics – NESTOR 1904 and its current Section of Astronomy, Astrophysics, (Neutrino Extended Submarine Telescope with Oceano- and Mechanics was formed in the mid 1980s by merg- graphic Research) became the fifth institute of the na- ing the previously independent Chairs indicated in its tional Observatory of Athens in 2003. The institute is name. The Section is the largest in Greece and consists leading the development of a deep-sea high energy neu- of 24 tenured or tenure tract faculty. Most of them have trino telescope approximately 14km off the shore from research interests in the area of Astronomy and Astro- the town of Pylos in Peloponnese, at water depth of physics, while Mechanics is a rather small constituent. 4000m. NESTOR will detect the Cherenkov radiation The Department of Physics started a graduate school in produced by muons traversing the water when their par- 1994, within which the Section has its own Masters and ent neutrinos emitted from astrophysical objects, such PhD programs with 12 graduate courses. Since January as X-ray binaries, black holes, or Active Galactic Nuclei, 2000 the Section also operates a 40cm Cassegrain tele- scope within a 5m rotating dome located on the top of 8 More information on the National Observatory of Athens the the Physics building. The telescope was constructed by can be found at: http://www.noa.gr 6 interact with water. The current director of the Institute 3.2.6. University of Thrace is Prof. L. Resvanis. The Laboratory of Space Electrodynamics (LSE) at Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of 3.2.3. Academy of Athens the “Democritus” University of Thrace is the largest The Academy of Athens was formally founded in 1926. space physics group in Greece with extensive experience It currently has among its members two Academicians in hardware development. It consists of 6 faculty, several (Prof. G. Contopoulos and Prof. T. Krimigis) with a research associates, support personnel, and many grad- background and research interests in astronomy. One uate and undergraduate students. The scientists are co of the centers of the Academy, the Research Center for investigators or associated scientists on several interna- Astronomy and Applied Mathematics, consists of 11 per- tional spacecraft missions (e.g. Ulysses, Geotail, Cluster manent research staff, and conducts research in solar and II, and others), successfully funded through European space physics, cosmology, particle physics and dynamical programs and bilateral collaborations with other coun- astronomy. tries, including the U.S. The LSE has designed, devel- oped and successfully flown particle experiments on a 3.2.4. University of Thessaloniki number of Russian spacecraft, as well as component sys- tems to instruments involving data processing units and The “Aristotle” University of Thessaloniki was the sec- ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits). Such ond university in Greece and it was founded in 1925. high technology hardware capability in space instrumen- There are two units in the University with activity in tation is rather unique within Greece. The LSE group Astronomy. The smallest, in the Polytechnic School, con- has expanded their activities to antennae and propaga- sists of two faculty members and their research is concen- tion, satellite communications, and other related areas. trated mainly on flare stars. The largest is the Section of 9 Astrophysics, Astronomy and Mechanics (AAM ) of the 3.2.7. University of Patras Department of Physics, with 17 faculty members, sev- eral research associates, graduate students, and support The University of Patras has a Laboratory of Astron- personnel. The Section was formed in the mid-80s when omy and a Section of Astronomy in the Division of The- the administrative structure of the Laboratories of As- oretical and Mathematical Physics in the Department of tronomy (founded in 1943) and Mechanics changed (see Physics. A total of nine tenured and tenure track faculty Sect. 1). The staff is active in many areas of theoret- teach courses and conduct research in a few astronomy ical and observational astrophysics, including an active areas and there is an active theoretical group on celestial theoretical group on gravitation and general relativity, mechanics. as well as in education and public outreach. In addi- tion to the Stephanion Observatory (see Sect. 4.4) the 3.2.8. University of Ioannina Section operates a 20cm refracting telescope (made by This is the smallest group of Astronomy in a Depart- Secretan, Paris) in a rotating 6m-diameter dome, which ment of Physics in Greece. It has three faculty members is located within the University campus, and it is used in the Section of Astrogeophysics, within the Department for educational purposes. of Physics. The staff performs research mostly in so- 3.2.5. lar physics and in multi-wavelength observations of flare University of Crete stars. The University of Crete was founded in 1973 but ac- cepted its first students in 1978. Its Department of 4. NATIONAL FACILITIES Physics was founded in 1978 and is the youngest of simi- The limited funding of the Greek government towards lar Departments in Greece. The Section of Astrophysics basic and applied research has had, as a result, the small 10 and Space Physics has 7 faculty members as well as investment in major infrastructures for astronomical fa- several research staff and graduate students. Two (2) cilities in Greece. This affected the oldest observatories more tenured track astronomers, from the Foundation in Greece, such as Penteli, Kryoneri and Stephanion Ob- for Research and Technology-Hellas and the Technical servatory, which have difficulties keeping up-to-date with Education Institute of Heraklion, are actively collabo- the modern developments in telescope design, aperture rating with the members of the Section. Research at size of the telescope primary mirrors, as well as the in- the Univ. of Crete covers a broad range in theoretical strumentation available. More recent facilities, such as and observational problems related to both galactic and Skinakas Observatory, which currently hosts the largest extragalactic astrophysics. Significant efforts are being operational telescope in Greece which is 1.29m in diame- devoted to the operations of an Ionospheric Physics lab- ter, are more modern and do provide high quality instru- oratory. Observations for several astronomical projects ments to the observers. However, they also suffer from are also taken at the Skinakas Observatory (see Sect. 4.2) the limited national financial support and they cannot and others are performed using international ground and function as facilities that can provide access to all Greek space born telescopes. The Department has a graduate astronomers who may wish to use them. A major effort program through which students can pursue their grad- in improving the current situation has been the ongoing uate studies in astrophysics. construction of the 2.3m “Aristarchos” telescope by the National Observatory of Athens. The telescope had its 9 The online description of the AAM Section in Thessaloniki can be found at: http://www.astro.auth.gr first light in the end of 2005 and when it becomes fully 10 The web page of the Astronomy Section in Crete can be found operational, before the end of 2007, will be the largest in at: http://www.physics.uoc.gr/en/ Greece. 7

Fig. 3.— An optical satellite image of Greece, obtained in 2004, in which the locations of the major observatories hosting functioning optical telescopes with a primary mirror diameter larger than 0.5m are indicated (Image courtesy of MODIS Rapid Response Project at NASA/GSFC)

4.1. Chelmos Observatory 4.2. Skinakas Observatory The site selected for the new 2.3m telescope is located The Skinakas Observatory12 operates as part of a sci- in Northern Peloponnese, on top of Chelmos mountain, entific research collaboration between the University of near the small town of Kalavrita approximately 150km Crete, the Foundation for Research and Technology- from Athens, with longitude: 22o13’, latitude: 37o58’ Hellas (FORTH) and the Max-Planck-Institut f¨ur Ex- N and an elevation of 2340m. The total cost for the traterrestrische (MPE) Physik of Germany. project is expected to be about 5 million Euros and it The site of the Observatory (Longitude: 24o53’57”E, was financed mainly by the European Union, as well as Latitude: 35o12’43”N), chosen on scientific and func- by the General Secretariat for Research and Technology tional grounds, is the Skinakas summit of Mount Ida of the Ministry of Development. The telescope named (also known as Psiloritis), at an altitude of 1750m and “Aristarchos” is a Ritchey-Chrtien with a focal ratio f/8 a distance of 60km from Heraklion. The Observatory and a 10 field of view as well an RC-corrected field of view has two telescopes: a Modified Ritchey-Chrtien telescope of 1degree. The telescope and dome are constructed by with a 1.29m aperture (focal ratio f/7.6), which became Carl Zeiss (Germany). operational in 1995, and a 30cm telescope (focal ratio The image scale on the focal plane is 1”=85µm and f/3.2). The building for the small telescope was con- a 1024x1024 CCD camera was the first light instru- structed in 1986, and observations started in 1987. The ment. A medium resolution (2.5A-˚ 6A)˚ spectrometer site is one of the best in Greece with weather conditions covering the range between 4270Aand˚ 7730Aas˚ well as often permitting photometric sub-arcsecond seeing. It in- a 4096x4096 optical CCD will be the first generation cludes a modern guest house powered with solar arrays instruments of the telescope. These will be followed and an Internet connection. by an echelle spectrometer covering the range between The optical system of the 1.29m telescope were manu- 3900Aand˚ 7500Awith˚ a resolution of 6 km s−1, as well factured by Carl Zeiss (Germany). The mechanical parts as other instruments. The supervision of the telescope were built by DFM Engineering (USA). The instrumen- construction as well as its operation are managed by the tation available includes a focal reducer, a number of op- Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the National 11 http://www.astro.noa.gr/ASC 2.3m/ngt main.htm Observatory of Athens . 12 More information on Skinakas Observatory can be obtained from: http://skinakas.physics.uoc.gr 11 Details on the Chelmos Observatory is available at: 8

Fig. 4.— Left: A picture of the dome of the 2.3m Aristarchos telescope at Chelmos. Right: A photograph of the telescope inside the dome (Images courtesy of National Observatory of Athens).

Fig. 5.— An areal view of the Skinakas Observatory summit with the larger dome of the 1.29m telescope seen on the left, along with the smaller domes the guest house facilities. The 1.29m telescope inside its dome is seen in the right (Images courtesy of the Physics Dept., Univ. of Crete). 9 tical CCD cameras, and a low resolution long slit spectro- demand for co-operative and simultaneous observations graph. A 1024x1024 near-IR camera and an echelle spec- at the Stephanion Observatory stems from the strict dif- trograph will soon be available on site, along with OP- ferential method used for obtaining absolute, above at- TIMA, a fast photo-polarimeter with microsecond time mosphere, stellar magnitudes in the international UBV resolution intended for observations of compact objects. system. The error in the calibrated magnitudes obtained Various research projects, both galactic and extragalac- is usually better than 0.02 magnitudes. tic, mostly led by members of the Department of Physics of the University of Crete or MPE astronomers have been 4.5. Penteli Observatory ongoing since the facilities became operational. The close The Astronomical Station on Penteli Mountain, just collaboration with the MPE group and the FORTH en- 15km from downtown Athens, was established in 1937 gineering support has helped the astrophysics group in when it became apparent that it was necessary to move Crete in keeping the telescope and the instruments in the telescopes from the grounds of the old National Ob- the forefront of technology, always taking into account servatory in the center of Athens. In 1955 the National the limitations in the budget. Observatory of Athens accepted the donation offered by 4.3. Kryoneri Observatory the University of Cambridge, for a 62.5cm telescope de- signed by R. S. Newall, and constructed by the firm 13 The Astronomical Station of Kryoneri was estab- Thomas Cooke & Sons in 1868. Its big tube (about 9m in lished in 1972. It is located in the Northern Peloponnese, legth), the German-type equatorial mount and its weight on top of mountain Kilini at an elevation of 930m, near of about nine tons, required careful dismounting, trans- the small village Kryoneri 110km from Athens (longi- o o portation and installation in a new dome that was built tude: 22 37’E, latitude: 37 58’N). The 1.2m Cassegrain in Penteli. This telescope, no longer used for research, is Coude telescope of the Astronomical Station Kryoneri, still available on site today. made by Grubb Parsons Co., Newcastle, was installed in 1975. Its optical system consists of a paraboloidal 4.6. Eudoxos Educational Observatory primary mirror of 1.23m in diameter and f/3 focal ra- tio, and a hyperboloidal secondary mirror (31 cm). Both The “Eudoxos” observatory is a web-accessible com- mirrors are made of Zerodur. The telescope focal ratio plex of optical and radio telescopes, founded in 1999, is f/13, its field of view is about 40’ and the image scale whose facilities are located 16km from Argostoli, in the is 12.5”/mm. As with Chelmos Observatory, Kryoneri is Ionian island of Kefallinia at a plateau 600m below operated by the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics the peak of mount Ainos (1628m). It operates a 0.6m of the National Observatory of Athens. Cassegrain robotic telescope named after Dr. Andreas Michalitsianos, a Greek astrophysicist who was born in 4.4. Stephanion Observatory the island and had a successful career in NASA (USA) until his early passing away. The observatory was formed The first observations at the Stephanion Observatory, by a consortium of Greek institutes involving the Na- in eastern Peloponnese, were undertaken in March 1967 tional Research Center of Physical Sciences “Democri- with a guest 38cm reflector and a UBV photometer that tus”, the Hellenic Naval Academy, the Ministry of Edu- belonged to the Bergedorf Observatory of the University cation and the Prefecture of Kefallinia and Ithaki. It is of Hamburg, Germany. Since then a large number of being operated by the same consortium with the addi- instruments have been hosted at the 800-m altitude ob- o tion of the University of Athens and has already received servatory, which is located at longitude: 22 49’45”E, lat- o substantial support from the Hellenic Air Force and the itude: 37 45’9”N, including French telescopes, for mon- Ministry of Education. The 0.6m telescope consists of itoring satellites, and a 40cm reflector from the Utrecht a fully autonomous computerized optical tube assembly, Observatory, Netherlands. In June 1971, the 30-inch automated enclosure, GPS smart antenna for time syn- (76cm) Cassegrain reflector of the University of Thes- chronization, a full set of meteorological sensors, a large saloniki was installed at the Observatory. Until 1975, format imaging CCD camera and UBVRI wheeled photo- when the 1.23m Cassegrain Coude reflector at Kryoneri metric filters, as well as a fleet of peripheral instruments became operational, this was the largest telescope in currently under construction or testing. All equipment Greece. is completely controlled by two supervisory computers, The 30-inch reflector is mounted asymmetrically and which communicate via the Internet to the participating its focal ratio is f/3 for the primary hyperbolic mirror and secondary schools and institutions. f/13.5 for the Cassegrain focus. It was constructed by Astro Mechanics, USA, a firm that has long ago discon- 5. HIGH SCHOOL AND UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES IN tinued making astronomical instruments. The majority ASTRONOMY of observations are carried out with a Johnson dual chan- nel photoelectric photometer with an offset guider unit The Greek secondary education system does provide mounted in the Cassegrain focus. It includes an RCA substantial training in physics and mathematics to the 1P21 and an RCA 7102 photo-multipliers, both of which students who wish to follow university studies in sciences. are refrigerated by dry ice. Key photometric observa- Even though there is no compulsory astronomy course tions of variable stars (flare stars, Cepheid variables, RS in high school (only an elective introductory astronomy CVns, etc) have been undertaken in co-operation with course is available for high-school juniors) basic astron- large ground or space instruments. The international omy ideas related to the solar system, stars, galaxies, and the formation of the universe are presented in other 13 Additional information on Kryoneri Observatory are at: courses. Since 1996 the “Society for Space and Astron- http://www.astro.noa.gr/ASK 1.2m/ask main.htm omy” of Volos (see Sect. 7) has been organizing a very 10 successful national astronomy competition in which stu- due to limited funds available in this field as well as due to dents from all over Greece attending the last three years various bureaucratic and organizational difficulties. As a of high school (“Lyceum” in greek) can participate. The result graduate students in Greece have to either work, or top students are awarded various prizes while the first rely on other means to support themselves during their two are invited to attend an all-expenses-paid summer studies. This sometimes affects their ability to invest the space-camp in the United States organized by NASA. amount of time necessary for research in order to com- This effort, mainly supported by private funds and vol- plete a very high quality PhD project. unteer work, has helped substantially in popularizing as- These reasons have been pushing many of the Greek tronomy among high school students. students to go abroad for their graduate studies. The At the university level there is no Bachelors (BSc) de- most popular destinations are the United States, the gree in Astronomy or Space Science in Greece. Most United Kingdom, Germany, France and The Nether- individuals, who are now professionals in the field of lands. The improved facilities and competitive research AA&SP and did their undergraduate studies in Greece, environment in those countries do provide high qual- obtained their BSc degree in Physics following a four-year ity training to the students but often decrease the like- program. Some, mostly theorists, have obtained their lihood of their return to work in Greece. Recently undergraduate degrees in Mathematics or Engineering. though, the opportunities made available by the Euro- Even in the various Departments of Physics in Greece pean Union, mostly via the Human Capital as well as though, the curriculum of the astronomy courses varies Training and Mobility programs, have ameliorated the depending on the number and research background of situation. These new possibilities have provided the the astronomy faculty. Most Physics majors in Greece means to establish close links between Greek and other have to follow at least one compulsory junior course in European institutions, which improves substantially the Astrophysics while some complementary topics on dy- training of local students thus bringing direct scientific namical astronomy are typically covered on compulsory return to the home institution. sophomore and junior level courses in classical mechan- 7. AMATEUR ASTRONOMY IN GREECE ics and modern physics. Most Departments of Physics offer the possibility of an astronomy specialization (or Amateur astronomy has been flourishing in Greece over minor), even though this is not formally awarded as a the past decade. The availability of high quality and degree. Within this framework, students, who are in- low cost small telescopes and the use of Internet to or- terested in astronomy, have the opportunity to attend ganize and advertise the activities of groups has greatly typically five to ten junior and senior level courses in as- helped the development in the field. Many amateur orga- trophysics, space physics and celestial mechanics, thus nizations exist all over Greece. In particular one should obtaining a fairly solid background if they wish to con- mention the “Hellenic Astronomical Union” which is the tinue for graduate studies. society of amateur astronomers in Athens, the “Group of The level of this University astronomy training is usu- friends of Astronomy” in Thessaloniki, the “Corfu Astro- ally very good in the theoretical and encyclopedic part nomical Society”, and the very active “Society for Space and the top students are competitive with international and Astronomy” in the city of Volos. Since 1999 the standards. What the students lack sometimes is the Greek amateur astronomers have been organizing a na- hands-on practical knowledge, which can only be ob- tional meeting every two years where they present their tained with access to engineering facilities or observa- results and discuss issues of common interest. tories. The organization of summer schools, such as the 8. GREECE AND INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMY one taking place at the University of Crete for the past ORGANIZATIONS 17 years, addressed to undergraduates at junior and se- Greece joined the International Astronomical Union as nior level, can often fill this gap. There are also recent ef- a funding member in 1920. It also contributes to the sup- forts at various institutions, such as the Univ. of Athens, port of the international refereed journal of Astronomy to enhance the observational astrophysics courses with a & Astrophysics, which allows Greek astronomers to pub- more organized usage of small telescopes and new instru- lish their scientific results without page charges. Since ments. 2004 Greece also participates in OPTICON, a 19.2 mil- lion Euro 5-year European FP6 Infrastructure Network, 6. GRADUATE STUDIES IN ASTRONOMY, ASTROPHYSICS & SPACE PHYSICS which provides access to a number of medium size tele- scope facilities around the world. Graduate studies in Astronomy Astrophysics & Space In early 2005 Greece joined the European Space Physics leading to a Masters or a PhD degree can now Agency (ESA) contributing to the annual budget of ESA be completed in most Greek Universities. The first with ∼9 million Euros. This opens new opportunities for well-organized physics graduate program in Greece with Astrophysics and Space Physics both in terms of technol- coursework, qualifying exams, and at least partial finan- ogy development as well as in science. Over the past year cial support for students was developed in the University significant organizational efforts have been taking place of Crete in 1984. This was soon to be followed by the in order to stimulate the Greek AA&SP community so University of Athens and other institutions. that it will be able to capitalize on this investment and However, the system suffers from difficulties, which join the rest of the western European countries in the again stem from the limited national funding. Less than forefront of space technology. a handful of state fellowships for graduate studies in 9. AA&SP are available each year. Providing financial sup- REMARKS port for graduate studies via European Union or national I believe that it is appropriate to end this article on research proposals in astronomy is very challenging both the status of Greek astronomy with an optimistic note 11 on the many improvements we have all experienced over for Greece to join ESO would be a one-time ∼10 mil- the past decade. As it can be seen from the material pre- lion Euros entrance fee, similar to our annual contribu- sented in the previous sections, the environment, both re- tion to ESA, and an annual membership fee of only ∼1 search and academic, for the current and next generation million Euros. Thus, if following the recommendation of Greek astronomers is considerably better than what of the international expert committee, ESO were to be our predecessors had experienced and worked through. our lofty astronomy goal for the present century, one can I must also touch upon, a subject, which was men- only hope that the whole Greek community will embrace tioned earlier but only briefly. Unfortunately Greece it and with a joined effort will convince the “powers that is still not a member of the European Southern Ob- be” to turn the wheels and make it a reality before the servatory, the major astronomical organization in Eu- end of the current decade. rope. As a result it has no access to the current Euro- pean infrastructures of the Very Large Telescope (VLT), nor to the development of the Atacama Large Millime- ter Array (ALMA) nor to the design of the future ESO This document used material from the online archives projects, such as the 100m OverWhelmingly Large tele- of the Hellenic Astronomical Society, the Greek National scope (OWL). I should stress that the report14 of the Committee for Astronomy, as well as from the annual international expert committee chaired by Prof. Terzian reports of the various institutes that were available on- (Cornell Univ.) on the status of Greek Astronomy pre- line. I would like to thank K. Kokkotas (Univ. of Thes- sented in 1998 during the workshop “Astronomy 2000+: saloniki), N. Kylafis (Univ. of Crete), J.H. Seiradakis Greek Prospects for the 21st Century” noted that join- (Univ. of Thessaloniki), K. Tsinganos (Univ. of Athens), ing ESO should be the first astronomy priority for the and E. Xilouris (National Observatory of Athens) for nation. Current rough estimates indicate that the cost making suggestions that improved this article.

14 The complete “Terzian Report” is available at http://www.astro.noa.gr/gnca/NEWS/ca-report2000.htm