Table of Contents 2 President's Column 11 Building a Bridge to PhD Programs 4 From the Executive Office for Minority STEM students 13 CSWA Tenured Faculty Statistics 5 Astronomy Goes Deep in the Heart 18 Agency News of Texas 6 25 Things About... 20 Kepler Releases New Data to Public Archive 8 Journals Update 10 Pre-Major in Astronomy Program Back Page Washington News

A A S American Astronomical Society AAS Officers President's Column Debra M. Elmegreen, President David J. Helfand, President-Elect Debra Meloy Elmegreen, [email protected] Lee Anne Willson, Vice-President Nicholas B. Suntzeff, Vice-President Edward B. Churchwell, Vice-President Hervey (Peter) Stockman, Treasurer G. Fritz Benedict, Secretary Richard F. Green, Publications Board Chair As a new academic year looms, my Timothy F. Slater, Education Officer thoughts turn to the mentoring Councilors and training we provide our young Bruce Balick astronomers, as well as efforts to improve Richard G. French Eileen D. Friel the percentages of underrepresented Edward F. Guinan minorities. The Astro2010 New Worlds, Patricia Knezek James D. Lowenthal New Horizons (NWNH) decadal report, Robert Mathieu now a year since its release, makes Angela Speck Jennifer Wiseman several observations and suggestions in chapter four regarding these issues, but Executive Office Staff falls short of formal recommendations Kevin B. Marvel, Executive Officer Tracy Beale, Membership Services because so many of them depend Administrator on departments (rather than the Chris Biemesderfer, Director of Publishing Laronda Richardson, Meetings & Exhibits government or funding agencies) taking Coordinator action. This is where AAS members can Kelly E. Clark, Chief Financial Officer Kim Earle, Director of Meeting Services step up to the challenges, as many already have done. Richard Tresch Fienberg, Press Officer and Education & Outreach Coordinator Lisa Idem, Meetings Manager NWNH highlights the grim reality of graduate students being caught in Scott Idem, Systems & Network Director long postdoctoral stints while awaiting a faculty position (as emphasized by Bethany Johns, John Bahcall Public Policy Fellow Jim Ulvestad at the Boston meeting in his invited talk on demographics; Judith M. Johnson, Director of available by video online on the members’ pages). Yet there are many Communications Jerry Lin, IT Support Assistant & Web career opportunities for PhD astronomers beyond academia, in research Applications Developer and government institutions and private corporations as well as in media, Kara North, Meetings Abstract Administrator Faye C. Peterson, Director of Membership museums, planetaria, and K-12 education. One action departments need Services to take, if they have not already done so, is to make sure their mentoring Crystal M. Tinch, Communications Manager of undergraduate and graduate students and even postdocs includes a AAS Newsletter frank and open discussion about the many different types of opportunities that an astronomy-trained person may enjoy. It is important to reinforce Judith M. Johnson, Editor the thought that students do not have to reproduce their advisor’s career Crystal M. Tinch, Associate Editor path in order to be considered a success. I have heard too many graduate Jeff Linsky, U. Colorado, Associate Editor, Letters students voice these concerns to me, and they need reassurance as well as guidance in considering many avenues. Toward this end, the January AAS The AAS Newsletter (ISSN 8750-9350) is published bi-monthly by the American meeting in Austin will feature many relevant special sessions, including one Astronomical Society, 2000 Florida Avenue, on the astrophysics postdoc job market (led by Employment Committee NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20009-1231; Tel: 202-328-2010, Fax: 202-234-2560, Chair Fred Rasio), on careers in media (past Press Officer Steve Maran), [email protected]; www.aas.org. and in public policy (Bahcall Public Policy Fellow Bethany Johns). Plan to Items of general interest to be considered for attend as many as you can, and encourage your students to attend as well. publication in the AAS Newsletter should be Note also that the Career Services page of the AAS site, http://aas.org/ sent to [email protected]. Appropriate pictures are welcome. For information about deadlines career, posts several non-academic career profiles from past newsletters that and submitting articles, see may also prove illuminating. http://aas.org/publications/newsletter.php. Items submitted to the AAS Newsletter are not automatically included in the AAS Electronic Some departments already have opportunities for graduate students to Announcements or vice versa. Submit receive important training outside of traditional astronomy courses, such electronic announcement items to [email protected]. as in computation, instrumentation, pedagogy, science public policy, and science writing. Sometimes these are offered by the astronomy department, Front Cover and sometimes in collaboration with other departments. I feel it is SNR 0509. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble important to help develop the career aspirations of graduate students by Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

2 American Astronomical Society http://aas.org President's Column continued giving them freedom to explore related opportunities if Space Telescope in the FY2012 proposed budget, and they so choose, and I encourage departments to consider vetoed Rep. Schiff’s (D-CA) amendment to reinstate it. giving graduate credit toward degrees for at least a course As you know from the AAS info emails, Bethany Johns or two outside of astronomy per se (as I know several and Kevin Marvel have kept in close contact with key departments already do). This is not to diminish their people to monitor activities on the Hill and to decide astronomical training but to enhance it. when and how to take action most effectively. The AAS released a public statement in support of JWST (posted There are many online resources for guidelines on on the AAS homepage) and sent letters to Congressional mentoring, such as the Boston AAS special session on representatives in early July because it was the top-ranked mentoring and networking posted on http://www. space mission from the past decadal survey and underlies aas.org/cswa/. Also noteworthy is the mentor training much of NWNH. The American Physical Society has also seminar offered by the American Physical Society in released a statement. In a show of international unity for collaboration with the NSF-sponsored Center for this important mission, letters of support have also come in Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (http:// from the International Astronomical Union, the Canadian www.aps.org/programs/education/undergrad/faculty). Astronomical Society, the European Astronomical Union, An important component of mentoring is a discussion of the French Society of Astronomy and Astrophysics, and ethics. The above site includes ethics case studies; it is also the Italian Astronomical Society. Jack Burns, chair of useful to review with students the AAS Ethics Statement: CAPP, and I visited Capitol Hill in mid-August with http://aas.org/about/ethics_statement. Note that Bethany Johns to meet with staffers in the CJS minority Austin will include a special session on professional ethics and majority offices and in the offices of Reps. Wolf (AAS Executive Officer Kevin Marvel). (R-VA), Schiff (D-CA), Fattah (D-PA), and others, to discuss reinstatement of JWST into the budget. The Regarding efforts to increase diversity, I have asked AAS NASA replan with new management structure, costs, and Councilors Bruce Balick and Bob Mathieu and President- timelines is complete but awaits public release following Elect David Helfand to write brief articles for the newsletter approval from the Office of Management and Budget. because they are involved in some important initiatives The fact that JWST will become a NASA-wide priority that may prove useful to other departments. These will ease the burden on science divisions within the include a program to engage underrepresented minorities agency. Upcoming House and Senate discussions will be crucial in these matters, and more visits to the Hill by in astronomy research as freshmen, a collaborative faculty delegates from the AAS are in the works. Roger Blandford program to encourage effective STEM teaching practices will lead a group in mid-August, as I write this. The AAS for diverse audiences, and a program that provides a membership will be kept updated. Meanwhile it is very bridge between the undergraduate degree and pursuit of important for grassroots efforts to continue to rally the a PhD, respectively. I intend these articles to be viewed public, as emphasized in AAS email alerts; Congressional not as ads for particular institutions, but as motivations staffers emphasized that they appreciate the message of for types of programs that others may wish to implement. the science benefits, but need to hear from non-scientists Note that anyone can contribute to the AAS Newsletter, as well as scientists that JWST is worthy of support. and I encourage others to share their efforts as well; guidelines are posted on http://aas.org/publications/ While our attention has been focused on JWST since it newsletter.php. There will also be an Austin special explicitly fell out of the budget, we continue to advocate session on increasing department diversity (Hannah Jang- for other decadal survey priorities as well. LSST, while Condell). scheduled for a preliminary design review by NSF for late August, could also be impacted by the FY2012 proposed It has been a lively and difficult summer regarding budget, which severely reduces the NSF Major Research federal funding of astronomy, so I find it inescapable to and Equipment Facilities Construction line that LSST talk about decadal priorities in yet another newsletter hopes to enter in a few years. And the priorities of the column. It is always critical for the AAS to support the planetary decadal survey, Vision and Voyages, are also in recommendations of decadal surveys in order to present jeopardy. The issue of the restart of Pu-238 production a united front. At the time of this writing in mid-August, for deep space missions, which Bethany has been involved the House Appropriations sub-committee on Commerce, in all year, is still awaiting successful closure. Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS, to which AAS provided testimony in March) killed the James Webb continued on page 7

September/October 2011 3 From the Executive Office Kevin B. Marvel, Executive Officer, [email protected]

Summer is usually a slow time in this for the better part of a year and we are now moving the public policy realm, but this ahead with help from Scott Idem, our Director of year proved to be the exception. Information Technology, and Crystal Tinch, our Manager Amidst the debt-ceiling debacle of Membership Communications. Judy has already greatly (ahem, I mean debate), the House enhanced the way we handle the obituary notification Science Committee proposed and production process with the help and input of Jay cancelling the JWST, the highest Pasachoff, obituary editor. As a side benefit, obit status is ranked project in the last decadal now available directly on our obituary web page http:// survey. This action called for aas.org/baas/obits/all. Lessons learned from this process an immediate response, and will inform subsequent production and dissemination President Elmegreen and CAPP chains, enhancing our efficiency and, most importantly, Chair Jack Burns worked quickly to draft a statement improving how we communicate important information from the AAS and sought Executive Committee approval. to our members and other communities. We have also This rapid action allowed us to garner a significant signed a contract with an external firm, Bluespark, to amount of media coverage, which was noticed on Capitol help us redesign our website and effectively use the Hill. Subsequent efforts have focused on determining content management system that will support it. We strategy moving ahead. Significant efforts from leaders are committed to using Drupal, as it is open source and in our community resulted in op-ed pieces and editorials widely used. Substantial progress will be made on this appearing in all major newspapers. We began a sustained during this fall and early spring of 2012 and we will keep lobbying effort in mid-August to carry our community’s you informed going forward. support of the Decadal Surveys and their priorities including JWST's to Congress. It is unclear as I write Second, we continue to enhance our meeting services this column if the full House will actually support the efforts by improving our processes, controlling costs and committee’s recommendation for cancellation of JWST expanding our support to the community. In particular, or not. A vote is expected shortly after the House returns the Council approved an AAS-branded special topic from recess in early September. Whatever action they take, meeting series. We are developing a detailed project we have strong support in the Senate for the project and, outline for ExCom review in October and will widely barring a fix on the House floor, it is likely the matter will announce the program once approved. The goal is to be resolved in conference discussion. We are putting our apply our meeting services expertise directly to our efforts into both the short-term tactical efforts needed to mission to enhance and share humanity’s understanding save JWST and the longer-term strategic efforts needed of the universe by competitively selecting and carrying to ensure support and ultimate completion of all Decadal out specialized topical conferences. In addition, the Surveys' recommendations. See our Informational AAS meeting services team has expanded their work by Emails, Action Alerts and Bethany Johns’s column in this supporting non-AAS and non-Division meetings, such newsletter. as the Extereme Solar Systems meeting in Jackson Hole this fall. Again, the goal here is to enhance the science Summer also provides some time to get large projects impact of meetings by removing the burden of logistical moving forward here at the Executive Office, and I organization from astronomer-organizers, allowing them thought I would share some of the progress on longer- to focus on the science, while our experienced team term efforts we are making on behalf of our members and handles the logistics details. We will grow this effort with the support of Council. slowly and organically, expanding staffing as we need and can afford. If you are organizing a meeting in 2013 or First and foremost, we are fulfilling the recommendations beyond and do not want to worry with details, give us a of our internal AAS-HQ communications working call—we can help. group and evolving the way we create and disseminate information with an eye to efficiency. Judy Johnson, Finally, I want to remind all members that we begin our our Director of Communications, has been working on membership renewal period in early fall with an email to

continued on page 7 4 American Astronomical Society http://aas.org Astronomy Goes Deep in the Heart of Texas Rick Fienberg, AAS Press Officer and Education & Outreach Coordinator

Austin, Texas, bills itself as “The Live Music Capital of the require separate registration and—except for the personal- World.” From 8 to 12 January 2012, Austinites will hear finance workshop—payment of a small fee. the live music of the spheres when the 219th AAS meeting convenes at the Austin Convention Center, 500 E. Cesar HAD sessions also begin on the weekend, including one Chavez St., less than a mile south of the Texas State Capitol on the June 2012 transit of Venus—the last such event that and not far from the University of Texas’s flagship campus. anyone alive today will have a chance to witness, as the next Meeting with us are the Society’s Historical one is in December 2117—and another on Astronomy Division (HAD) and High the funding of astronomy since World War Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD). II. HEAD sessions begin on Monday and include core-collapse supernovae and the More than a dozen prize and invited talks variable and surprising gamma-ray sky. will be given by eminent astronomers, starting with the Kavli Lectureship by Numerous other special sessions and splinter Lyman Page (Princeton Univ.) on neutrinos meetings occur throughout the week. Among and the cosmic microwave background them are sessions on early science from SOFIA and ending with the Berkeley Prize lecture and LOFAR, on diversity and professional by Linda Tacconi (MPE) on molecular ethics in astronomy, and on “cyber-discovery” gas in star-forming galaxies in the early in the era of large surveys with fire-hose data universe. Among the many compelling talks rates. Speaking of those, several are featured in between is a retrospective on 50 years of in their own special sessions, including SDSS- human spaceflight by astronomer-astronaut III, BOSS, BigBOSS, SEGUE, CANDELS, Steve Hawley (Univ. of Kansas), an address WISE, and CFHTLenS. (Perhaps we will by AAAS CEO Alan Leshner, a sobering look at “Big learn why you can’t do a sky survey if you don’t have an Science in Crisis” by Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg acronym.) (Univ. of Texas), and the AIP Gemant Prize lecture by our own Steve Maran, who served as AAS Press Officer for 25 If you are an early-career astronomer, you will want to years until his retirement in 2009. attend the special session on the postdoc job market, and astronomers at all career stages are welcome at the special Even before the main science program begins, you can sessions on scientists’ career options in the media and in attend your choice of hands-on workshops on Saturday public policy. With that last topic high on everyone’s minds and/or Sunday, 7-8 January. The Center for Astronomy these days, in Austin we will have a bumper crop of Town Education (CAE) and the Collaboration of Astronomy Halls, giving you an opportunity to interact with leaders Teaching Scholars (CATS) will offer their popular Astro from NSF, NASA, NOAO, NRAO, and the Gemini and 101 Tier I Teaching Excellence Workshop and Tier II JWST projects. Students will have a special opportunity Technology Special Topic Workshop, and the Center for to meet with JWST Senior Project Scientist and Nobel Astronomy & Physics Education Research (CAPER) will Laureate John Mather (NASA GSFC). offer clinics on getting started in astronomy-education research, on robust qualitative research methods, and Austin offers a lot more than astronomy. In addition to on teaching diverse audiences. The National Optical nearly 200 live-music venues, the city hosts a vibrant Astronomy Observatory will conduct a workshop on community of musicians, artists, entrepreneurs, and protecting dark skies, the Virtual Astronomical Observatory progressive thinkers. It is home to some of the best Tex- is hosting one on science tools for data-intensive astronomy, Mex and barbecue in the U.S., and is the gateway to the and NSF will convene its annual meeting of Astronomy & beautiful Texas Hill Country. There are miles of hike and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellows. Anyone interested in bike trails, more than 200 parks, and an astronomy-friendly scientific and technical issues in exoplanet research will 300 days of sunshine each year. If you live in the Snow Belt, want to attend NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program a week in Austin in January could be just the thing to keep Analysis Group workshop. And here is a workshop we can the winter blues at bay. all use: “Personal Finance in Turbulent Times” with Ric Edelman, the nation’s #1 independent financial advisor For more information about the 219th AAS meeting, and (as ranked by Barron’s magazine). Note that workshops to register, visit our website, aas.org.

September/October 2011 5 Letter to the Editor

Voids and Supercluster Structure

Dear Editor,

We sincerely congratulate Dr. Margaret Geller for the Russell Lectureship award acknowledging her lifetime contributions to astronomy. Although Dr. Geller’s early research with John Huchra helped to map the filamentary structure with huge voids in the galaxy distribution, those who worked in this era will recall that this structure was actually discovered in 1978 when the first wide-angle 3D redshift survey maps were published by Gregory and Thompson (ApJ, 222, 784) and by Joeveer, Einasto and Tago (MNRAS, 185, 357). These early papers appeared some eight years before de Lapparent, Geller and Huchra (ApJL, 302, L1, 1986) published their award-winning research. In the intervening eight years, a number of other confirmation papers were published. As the large scale structure was being revealed, it was more complex than the most conservative cosmologists could personally accept, and this conservative group held their own threshold of discovery falsely high. Other cosmologists— including George Abell, Jan Oort, Allan Sandage and Yakov Zeldovich—fully embraced the new paradigm before Dr. Geller gained her prominence. As this eight year period came to a close, the new view became widely accepted in a form essentially identical to that proposed in 1978.

Laird A. Thompson [email protected]

Stephen A. Gregory [email protected]

25 Things About...President-Elect David J. Helfand

1. Birthplace...Mattapoisett, MA (it means quiet place by 13. Farthest I’ve been from home...Dali in Yunnan, China. the peaceful waters, which is why I ran screaming at 17). 14. Were you named after anyone...the Biblical King 2. My favorite cereal is...unknown, since I don’t eat David. breakfast. 15. I prefer AM or FM radio...NPR exclusively. 3. Motto...“The examined life is not worth living.” 16. Web site I spend the most time on...New York Times. 4. The last concert I attended was...the Metropolitan 17. Something that really annoys me … everything. Opera Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. 18. My dream car is… none (the point of living in New 5. When I get home, I like to wear... nothing. York). 6. The most important thing I learned from my mother 19. I make the best...Coquilles Saint-Jacques a’la Creole. was... “Those who think they know everything are 20. My favorite city is... .New York (this is a silly particularly annoying to those of us who do.” question). 7. The most important thing I learned from my father 21. My favorite actress is...my charming and talented was...how to work 14 hours a day and enjoy it. wife, Jada. 8. My favorite time of day is...the cocktail hour. 22. I want to retire…never. 9. My favorite holiday is...Bah Humbug, they all irritate 23. I refuse to play…yes. me. 24. Four people from history to have at a dinner party... 10. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off... Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Winston Churchill, and No, because I don’t wear shoes with laces. Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg 11. Device I would never give up…the fork. (aka Catherine the Great)—seated in that order. 12. My first real job was...produce clerk at the A&P. 25. I love to…****

6 American Astronomical Society http://aas.org President's Column continued from page 3 Member Deaths The Society is saddened to As astronomy continues to become more and more international in its endeavors, learn of the deaths of the by necessity because of big budgets and by design because of the advantages of following members, former collaborating on large technological projects, we all face the need for new ways to members, and affiliate approach the hurdles of uniting in these efforts, as emphasized in chapter three of members: NWNH. An instructive article in this regard is “A Dark Age for Astronomy?” by Roger-Maurice Bonnet and Johan A. M. Bleeker from www.sciencemag.org, 8 July, Dipak Basu discussing new attempts by the IAU and COSPAR (Committee on Space Research) Tom Gehrels to establish a global program in space astronomy. Kimmo Innanen Thomas H. Legg Looking ahead, we are just a year away from the XXVIII General Assembly of the Richard D. Schwartz International Astronomical Union, to be held for the first time in Beijing, China, Einar Tandberg-Hanssen 20-31 August 2012. Now is a good time to join the IAU, if you are not already a member: http://www.iau.org/administration/membership/individual/ qualification/ Letters to the Editor Letters to the Editor on Applications are due by 18 November to the US National Committee for Astronomy, current issues of importance whose chair is AAS Secretary Fritz Benedict; request information from IAU_ to astronomers are welcomed. [email protected]. This general assembly will be an exciting prelude to IAU Letters must be signed and XXIX, to be held in Hawaii in 2015 and co-hosted by the AAS, so there is much to should not exceed 250 look forward to internationally. words. Send to Jeff Linsky, Associate Editor, Letters, Meanwhile, it is time to get your abstracts and registrations in for Austin, as we ([email protected]; approach our exciting January meeting in the Southwest! 303-492-7838 phone; or 303-492-5235 fax) one week prior to the AAS Newsletter deadline. Letters may be From the Executive Office continued from page 4 edited for clarity/length (authors will be consulted) each of you asking that you take a few minutes to renew your membership online. and will be published at the We do this once more and then we send a paper mailing to the remaining non- discretion of the Editors. renewers. After that, we only remind you by email three more times before turning off your membership in February of the new year. Despite this large number of communications, we still have members having their membership turned off. Please Opting In and Out help us save time and money for our core mission and goals by responding promptly of AAS Publications to our notices for renewal. Also, take the time to consider donating to a Society If you would no longer like or Division activity of your choice. Through your additional contributions we can to receive paper copies of the accomplish much more. Contributions are fully tax deductible and allow you to AAS Membership Directory support a project, prize or effort that is important to you personally and important to or the AAS Calendar, please our field generally. If you have any questions about the renewal process or donations, send an email to address@aas. including larger donations or including the AAS in your estate planning, please org or log in to your member contact Faye Peterson, our Director of Membership Services. record at aas.org.

See you in Austin in January! To unsubscribe from AAS emails, contact [email protected]

Addendum: The note about the 2011 Gruber prize in the July/August For address changes, email Newsletter mentioned filaments and voids revealed for the first time by the 1981 CfA [email protected] redshift survey. That survey did show the large-scale structure of the universe more dramatically than before, but earlier evidence for cosmic clustering and filaments of galaxies appeared in many earlier papers, such as W. G. Tifft and S. A. Gregory (1976, ApJ, 205, p. 696) and W. G. Tifft (1980, ApJ, 239, p. 445), the papers noted in the Letter to the Editor, and others. September/October 2011 7 Journals Update Chris Biemesderfer, Director of Publishing, [email protected]

Accessibility of AAS Journal Content

Over the past decade, there has been interest from readers) fairly, with a combination of reasonable fees and many quarters about “access” to the results of scientific generous rights. research. Recently, this has taken the form of advocacy at the highest levels for the dissemination and preservation Authors of research data. The AAS has been interested in and involved with projects to do just that for many years, • The AAS makes publication agreements with authors and our continuing efforts will be the subject of a future of the research articles that are published in our column. journals. We make those agreements with authors as individuals. The agreements are generous in granting The most appropriate ways to provide access to journal rights and permission for authors to share their articles have been debated for more than a decade, starting research with students and colleagues, including by with calls for open access (no payment required) for online depositing their work in various repositories, such as journals in the 1990s. The open access debate was taken arXiv or authors’ institutional repositories. However, to the US Congress during the past decade. Several pieces the AAS regards the deposit of scholarly work in such of legislation that mandate open access have appeared repositories to be a decision of the individual scholar, in Congress over the last five years. The only legislative as long as the individual’s actions respect the diligence action that Congress has taken was in December 2007, of the journals and their reviewers. when the public access mandate for NIH-sponsored research became law. In 2009, at the request of the House Science and Technology Committee, a panel was Libraries convened to seek consensus on feasible and effective ways to expand access to and preservation of federally funded The AAS makes agreements with institutions in the research information. The group was called the Scholarly • form of subscriptions. These agreements are also fairly Publishing Roundtable (SPR), and its work was supported generous in the ways that institutions are permitted by the OSTP. In December 2009, the Office of Science to make our journals accessible to an institution’s and Technology Policy opened a public consultation immediate research community. The Society has had concerning “Public Access Policy.” The AAS contributed a policy of “delayed open access” since its journals formal comments as well as background material for both appeared online starting in 1995; content from the forums. AAS’s journal is available without charge one year after an article’s original date of publication. As a learned society of research and higher education professionals, the AAS has made a concerted effort to conduct its scholarly publishing enterprise with sensitivity The Society believes that these provisions more than to and balance among the need for prompt access to new adequately serve the needs of individual researchers and results with a low barrier, the pressures on the budgets of the astrophysics research community in general. technical libraries, and the challenges of obtaining grant and institutional funding to support author fees. We have always strived to achieve a balance that serves the two primary stakeholders (author-researchers and library-

8 American Astronomical Society http://aas.org Working Group on Laboratory Astrophysics R. Paul Drake (University of Michigan), Chair 2010-2011

The Working Group on Laboratory Astrophysics is in its fifth year. The Working Group promotes the coordination of theoretical and experimental research in all branches of science aimed at advancing our understanding of astronomical phenomena, including but not limited to astrophysics, astrochemistry, astrobiology, and planetary science.

A key vehicle through which the Working Group has sought to increase the interactions of data users (astronomers, astrophysicists, and astrochemists) and laboratory astrophysicists has been through the organization of a “Meeting-in-a-Meeting” (MiM) on laboratory astrophysics at each of the past several spring Credit: Max Planck Institute for Astronomy. meetings of the AAS. In May 2011 the theme of the MiM was nuclear and high-energy laboratory astrophysics. The There has been some rotation of members out of the sessions were well attended and provoked some lively Working Group, with replacement by others. The current discussion. In previous years, the MiMs have focused on members are: plasmas; on molecules, dust, and ices; and on an overview. The proposed MiM for 2012 will again be an overview. • Chair: Daniel Wolf Savin (2007-2012; Chair 2011-2012) The Working Group maintains an email list for the lab email: [email protected] astro community (http://lists.aas.org/cgi-bin/mailman/ • R. Paul Drake listinfo/wgla). The list went active in January 2010. (2007-2012; Chair 2010-2011) The number of subscribers now exceeds 330. We are • Steven R. Federman (2007-2012; Chair 2007-2008) particularly interested in hearing about your data needs • Farid Salama and your ideas for future AAS sessions as well as (2007-2012; Chair 2008-2010) about meetings of interest to the community. The • Michael F. A’Hearn Working Group also maintains a website at http://aas. (2009-2012) org/labastro/lawg_charter.php, which includes current • Nancy S. Brickhouse activities and the history of the group. (2007-2012) • Gary J. Ferland The Working Group, with colleagues from AAS/DPS, (2007-2012) sponsored its first workshop at the 2010 meeting of the • Murthy Gudipati Division for Planetary Sciences in October 2010. Working (2009-2012) Wick Haxton Group members were also active in the organization of • (2007-2012) the NASA Laboratory Astrophysics Workshop in October • Eric Herbst 2010. (2007-2012) • Stefan Profumo Based on the activities of the Working Group, and (2009-2012) its success at involving scientists from a wide range • Hendrik Schatz of subfields, the Council of the AAS has appointed a (2011-2012) committee to develop proposed bylaws for a Laboratory • Lucy M. Ziurys Astrophysics Division. If these bylaws are approved, the (2008-2012) new division will be created during 2012. • Ellen Zweibel (2010-2012)

September/October 2011 9 Pre-Major in Astronomy Program (Pre-MAP) at the University of Washington Bruce Balick, [email protected]

Pre-MAP* engages entering UW students who are Graduating high school seniors and transfer students who interested in math and science and who are traditionally wish to participate in Pre-MAP register for Astronomy underrepresented in astronomy (women, African 102, an introductory course taught in the autumn quarter. Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Asians/Pacific They also register for a three credit seminar, Astronomy Islanders, low-income and first-generation college 192, led by a specially trained graduate student. students) in hands-on research in the first year of their matriculation. The goal of the program is to motivate PreMAP was started by UW Astronomy graduate students these students to meet the rigors of STEM majors Andrew West, Kevin Covey, and Marcel Agüeros in throughout the university. the autumn of 2005. They received the “Distinguished Personal Initiative on Diversity in Astronomy” award from Our Pre-MAP students have a unique opportunity to the National Society of Black Physicists. About a quarter learn astronomical research techniques and apply them of the faculty, postdocs, and grad students are active in to research projects conducted in small groups. These the program each year, and most of the department has projects involve the use of cutting edge facilities and/or participated over the lifetime of the program. Pre-MAP is data available to UW astronomers, such as the Apache modeled on the UW’s highly successful Freshman Interest Point Observatory in New Mexico or the Sloan Digital Group (FIG) program. Sky Survey (SDSS) database. In addition, every Pre-MAP student receives one-on-one mentoring and peer support * http://www.astro.washington.edu/users/premap/ for at least the duration of the academic year, and has an opportunity to continue or expand their research project. Photos courtesy of University of Washington Department of Most PreMAP students elect to do so. Astronomy

10 American Astronomical Society http://aas.org Building a Bridge to PhD Programs for Minority STEM Students David J. Helfand, AAS President-Elect, [email protected]

Fewer than one in a million African-American and culture and communication to help with graduate school Hispanic US citizens get graduate degrees in physics and selection and applications. All students receive GRE prep astronomy each year. That is certainly a distinction for the courses as well as free tutoring in their classes, which are recipients, but it is a demographic disaster for the future carefully chosen at the undergraduate or graduate level to of the US STEM workforce. fill gaps as needed.

The latest American Institute of Physics (AIP) statistical The results have been extremely encouraging. Fourteen reports show that the 189 PhD programs in physics in students have graduated from the program to date; 12 the US award a total of 5769 degrees per year; 15 go have been accepted into leading graduate programs in to African-Americans and 16 to Hispanic-Americans. their fields and two have obtained full-time research These numbers constitute an under-representation by positions from which they intend to apply to MD/ factors of 13 and 15, respectively, compared to the PhD programs. We have hosted four students in the US population. The numbers of bachelors degrees in Department of Astronomy: one is now thriving in our physics are only slightly less egregious: in 2008, 150 department’s PhD program, a second is in the well- African-Americans and 199 Hispanics received bachelors known Fisk-Vanderbilt program and a third, accepted degrees, representing 2.60% and 3.45% of all such degrees to all four schools to which he applied, is in his second awarded. More disturbingly, the percentage of African- year at the University of Washington; the fourth student American bachelors degrees has fallen steadily over the started this summer. past 15 years, from 5.1% in 1996 to half that value today. Professor Marcel Agüeros undertook the directorship of The reasons for the lack of undergraduate majors are this program while on an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship numbingly familiar: ill-prepared K-12 teachers, under- at Columbia, and continues in that role now that he equipped schools, social disincentives, a lack of role is a member of our faculty and PI of the NSF grant. models, etc. As a university faculty member, it is easy to Dr. Summer Ash, also an astronomer, has just taken on throw up one’s hands. But the three or four factor leak in the role of Assistant Director with responsibility for the the pipeline between undergraduate and graduate school many day-to-day activities. The American Physical Society falls in our territory. At Columbia University, we have (APS) has been looking at using our program as a model begun an effort focused on making a difference at this for other institutions and has applied for funding. While critical juncture. our university’s support is strong, the lack of an obvious program to which to apply for support at NSF and/ Initially funded by a grant from the office of the Provost, or in other federal agencies makes its future tenuous. and subsequently augmented by an award from the NSF, As decades of experience—and recent trends—suggest, we have established the Bridge to the PhD in the Natural the problem of a STEM workforce unreflective of the Sciences. Each year, a cohort of five underrepresented population it must serve will not cure itself. I am hopeful minority students with STEM bachelors degrees are hired that our Society, in conjunction with our counterparts in as full-time Columbia employees with full benefits— other STEM disciplines, can help motivate the agencies to benefits that include the opportunity to take Columbia seek out and fund successful programs that address this courses. The appointments are for up to two years. Each serious scientific and social problem. student is paired with a faculty mentor and is integrated into a research group in his or her field of interest. Frequent Bridge program meetings cover topics from lab

September/October 2011 11 Committee on Employment Travis Metcalfe, [email protected]

Changing Priorities: the Hard Money Wild Card

If you are an astronomer who does not work at a university, Life as a hard money scientist was good. In addition the chances are good that you work at one of the many to having access to a 12-month salary without the federally funded research facilities or observatories (e.g., requirement of writing grant proposals, each scientist was STScI, NOAO). There are several types of positions at allocated a modest annual travel stipend while internal such institutions, including some supported by grants funds also paid for journal page charges and even helped (soft money) and others supported by base funding from bring in scientific visitors. In return, we worked on large- the sponsor (hard money). Some hard money positions scale and long-term projects that were not amenable can even be on a tenure track, with the usual disclaimer to funding through standard three-year grants, often about being “contingent on the availability of funding.” with a focus on serving the scientific community with These jobs generally involve some combination of research new modeling capabilities or public data. The primary and service in support of the mission of the organization. disadvantage of being an astronomer in a solar physics Such positions are ideal for scientists who want to spend laboratory was the difficulty of finding students and most of their time doing research rather than teaching— postdocs. Unlike a university environment where students the only catch is that your research must be relevant to the are the lifeblood, only a few students could be supported strategic goals of the institution. by internal fellowships at HAO. Postdocs were also hard to find, since most of the fellowship applicants were My first experience working in a federally funded research interested in solar physics, not astronomy. Consequently, laboratory came during the summer before I finished like many hard money scientists I still wrote grant my PhD. One of the external members of my thesis proposals to help recruit students and postdocs, and to committee was a hard money scientist at the High provide part of my salary. Altitude Observatory (HAO) in Boulder, Colorado— part of the National Center for Atmospheric Research Perhaps the greatest source of anxiety for a hard money (NCAR), which is sponsored directly by the National scientist is the annual drama of the federal budget cycle. Science Foundation. Growing up professionally in an Flat budgets at the federal level generally translate academic environment, I was surrounded by scientists who decided that being a university professor was the best into a flat budget for the NSF and all of its programs. career choice. This was my first exposure to an institution As everyone knows, a flat budget in the face of rising filled with people who had made a different evaluation. It operating costs really means a cut. When the budgets was a powerful experience that really resonated with my do get increased for inflation, salary levels within each vision of the ideal job, and by the end of the summer I was laboratory are supposed to be adjusted according to convinced that a hard money career path was right for me. merit—but in reality the extra funds either disappear entirely to offset a previous budget shortfall, or they are After finishing my thesis, I spent several years as a postdoc distributed evenly among the staff to compensate for the before landing an NSF fellowship that brought me back years without a cost of living adjustment. The leadership to HAO. About a year later, I was hired as a tenure in Washington certainly recognizes the importance of track hard money scientist. As the name suggests, the scientific research as an engine of economic growth and primary research focus at NCAR is Earth’s atmosphere innovation (read the America COMPETES Act), but —but because the Sun is responsible for the energy these lofty pronouncements rarely seem to be reflected in input at the top of the atmosphere and for the particle national budget priorities. flux underlying disruptive “space weather” events, HAO is the NCAR laboratory devoted to solar physics. My Nobody needs to be reminded of the chaos surrounding job was to maintain a connection between this group of the most recent federal budget cycles. A series of short- several dozen solar physicists and the wider astrophysics term “continuing resolutions” to fund the government community—using stars to provide a broader context for at 2010 levels ultimately led to a budget for 2011 that our understanding of the Sun, and ensuring that stellar finally passed more than halfway through the fiscal year. research could benefit from the laboratory’s detailed By this time the NSF and its programs were already knowledge of our local star.

12 American Astronomical Society http://aas.org preparing budget scenarios for 2012, and the partisan my backup plan in case a hard money position did not rancor in Washington made it clear that difficult decisions materialize. This unexpected career transition may be just were unavoidable. It was in this atmosphere that HAO the impetus I needed to build on this foundation, and concluded it could no longer support stellar research, and hopefully make a soft landing on soft money. Wish me I was given 12 months notice that my position would luck. be eliminated. Despite outstanding annual performance reviews and wide ranging contributions to programs across the organization, changing priorities motivated The AAS Committee on Employment is pleased to highlight by federal budget cuts ended my career as a hard money useful resources for astronomers and welcomes your comments scientist. and responses to this and previous columns. Check out our website (http://aas.org/career/) for additional resources Fortunately there are other ways to survive as a research and contact information for the committee members. We scientist. After my final year on hard money, I hope to are always looking for guest columnists in “non-traditional” continue working at NCAR for another year or so on soft careers. If you are willing to contribute, or have an idea for money. In the longer term, I will probably need to seek an a future column, please contact the Employment Column environment with lower overhead expenses to continue Editor, Liam McDaid ([email protected]). The funding myself on grants. As a graduate student I formed Committee exists to help AAS members with their careers. a non-profit organization dedicated to scientific research Your ideas are important, so let’s hear them! and public education, thinking that it could always be

Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy Joan Schmelz, CSWA Chair, University of Memphis, [email protected]

Senior Women: A Comparison of Astronomy Organizations

Senior women in astronomy provide us with mentors For comparison, 18% of full members of the AAS are and role models. They can change or even transform the women. In addition, 30% of named postdocs have been culture, dynamics, and environment of a department or women for the past 20 years; these represent some of the research group. They can stand with us and fight for us most highly qualified potential candidates for tenure-track if we find ourselves the victim of gender discrimination, positions. Note: these data are public domain and were sexual harassment, or unconscious bias. They can make an compiled by the demographics panel for Astro2010. We organization more female friendly. received special permission to share the results at the 2009 Women in Astronomy III conference. Here is a link to the CSWA began compiling a list of the percentage of women paper: among the tenured faculty members of PhD astronomy departments in the US. This list has now been expanded https://umdrive.memphis.edu/jschmelz/public/WIA_ to include the percentage of women researchers/faculty/ Paper.pdf staff (with tenure or the equivalent) for US astronomy institutes/universities/observatories. Numbers and per- Why tenured women? Other surveys of women in astron- centages were confirmed by a member of each organiza- omy have been more general. See, for example, the article tion. in the June 2004 issue of STATUS entitled, “Portrait of a Decade: Results from the 2003 CSWA Survey of Women The table (below) shows that the range is wide, with In- in Astronomy” by Jennifer Hoffman and Meg Urry: diana University leading the pack with 43% women on the tenured faculty, but with some other institutions still http://www.aas.org/cswa/status/STATUS_Jun04sm. in the single digits. The average is 14.7%, with a standard deviation of 9.5%. continued next page

September/October 2011 13 Senior Women: A Comparison of Astronomy Organizations continued

In my mind, tenure means success. Of course, there This list is meant to be an evolving document, so as are many ways to succeed in astronomy, but tenure members of your organization get tenure, retire, arrive, may be the most universal. This survey was narrowly leave, etc. we invite you to send the new numbers to focused to begin to answer a very specific question: “Are CSWA so we can keep an accurate tally. Please feel free women succeeding in astronomy?” One way to answer to contact us with any changes, updates, and questions. this question is, “Yes, individual women have always Also, if you would like to add your department or research succeeded in astronomy.” Another answer, related to the group to the list, please let us know. We will be posting group rather than the individual, is, “Yes, but progress is these data on the CSWA web page in the near future. all too slow.”

% Women # Women # Men Institution Department Joint Appts. 42.9 3 4 Indiana Univ. Astronomy 33.3 4 8 Univ. of Washington Astronomy 33.3 3 6 New Mexico Tech Physics 33.3 1 2 Case West Res Univ. Astronomy 30.0 3 7 Yale Univ. Astronomy 29.2 3.5 8.5 Caltech Astronomy 28.0 1.75 4.5 Univ. of Wisconsin Astronomy 1 at 0.75; 1 at 0.5 23.8 5 16 UCSC Astronomy & Astrophys. 23.1 3 10 Univ. Michigan Astronomy 23.1 3 10 Columbia Univ. Astronomy 22.4 3 10.4 Ohio State Astronomy 1 at 0.25; 3 at 0.05 20.8 15 57 NASA GSFC Astrophysics 20.0 4 16 Univ. of Arizona Astronomy 20.0 2 8 Univ. of Minnesota Astronomy 19.0 2 8.5 Princeton Univ. Astrophysical Sciences 1 at 0.5 16.7 3 15 UCLA Astronomy & Astrophys. 15.7 8 43 NASA GSFC Heliophysics 15.0 3 17 Univ. of Colorado Astrophys. & Planet. Sci. 15.0 3 17 Rensselaer Poly. Ins. Physics 14.3 4 24 Yale Univ. Physics 14.3 2 12 Univ. of Florida Astronomy 14.3 2 12 UMass Astronomy 13.6 3 19 Northwestern Univ. Physics & Astronomy 2 at 0.5 12.8 5 34 STScI Astronomy 12.5 2 14 Penn State Astronomy & Astrophys. 12.5 1 7 Univ. of Illinois Astronomy 2 at 0.5 11.8 2 15 UC Berkeley Astronomy 11.1 2 16 Florida Inter. Univ. Physics 10.5 2 17 NOAO Astronomy 10.0 5 45 Univ. of Hawaii Physics & Astronomy 10.0 2 18 Univ. of Texas, Austin Astronomy 10.0 1 9 Arizona State Univ. Astrophysics

14 American Astronomical Society http://aas.org Senior Women: A Comparison of Astronomy Organizations continued

% Women # Women # Men Institution Department Joint Appts. 9.5 2 19 Cornell Univ. Astronomy 9.3 5 49 Smithsonian Part of CfA 8.3 3 33 Louisiana State Univ. Physics & Astronomy 8.3 1 11 Harvard Univ. Astronomy; Part of CfA 4 at 0.5 8.1 2.5 28.5 Rice Univ. Physics & Astronomy 5 at 0.5 7.7 1 12 Boston Univ. Astronomy 7.5 4 49 MIT Physics 7.4 1 12.5 Univ. of Maryland Astronomy 1 at 0.5 7.1 4 52 Texas A&M Univ. Physics and Astronomy 6.8 2 27.5 Univ. of Delaware Physics & Astronomy 1 at 0.5 6.4 3 44 Stony Brook Univ. Physics & Astronomy 5.6 2 34 Iowa State Univ. Physics & Astronomy 5.6 1 17 Univ of Toledo Physics & Astronomy 4.7 1 20.5 Univ. of Chicago Astronomy & Astrophys. 3 at 0.5 4.2 1 23 NRAO Astronomy 4.0 1 24 Johns Hopkins Univ. Physics & Astronomy 0.0 0 21 Univ. of Utah Physics & Astronomy 0.0 0 13 Univ. of Virginia Astronomy

Notes: -These numbers are for Spring 2011; -For joint appointments, we include the fraction of time devoted to astronomy; -These data are for the entire department, not just the astronomy component of a department; -Assistant professors, research professors, junior members, part-time instructors, soft-money researchers, postdocs, emeritus faculty, etc. are not included in this list.

IAU Membership Deadline

Scientists seeking to become IAU members apply through August 2012 in Beijing, China, the USNC-IAU is happy the relevant National Committee of the country where to announce that the membership application process they are working or living permanently. In the United is now open. A new electronic membership application States, the U.S. National Committee of the IAU (USNC- process has been established to make becoming a member IAU) is organized through the Board on International easier. Interested scientists should send a request for Scientific Organizations at the National Academy of membership information to the following email address: Sciences. [email protected]. An access code will be provided to the online membership application system. The USNC-IAU establishes an application procedure following IAU regulations and procedures and accepts The deadline for applications for membership is applications in the year prior to each General Assembly. 18 November 2011. With the next General Assembly scheduled to be held in

September/October 2011 15 News from the Dynamical Astronomy Division Alice Monet, Division Secretary

2011 Brouwer Award Winner dynamics. (Citation by Ken Freeman) Each year since 1976 the DDA has honored the achievements of a major contributor to the field of Student Stipend Awards dynamical astronomy, recognizing the awardee with an At its annual meeting, the DDA awards stipends on a honorarium, a certificate, and presentation of an award competitive basis to students who wish to attend the lecture. Recent recipients include Victor Brumberg, meeting and present a talk on their research. In addition Simon White, Jacques Laskar, James Williams, and Tim to the stipend award, meeting registration and banquet de Zeeuw. fees are waived for the stipend winners.

The competition is open to all students currently enrolled The Brouwer Award was in an academic program at any college or university and established to recognize doing research in the area of dynamical astronomy. Such outstanding contributions research areas include, but are not limited to: to the field of Dynamical Astronomy, including • the dynamics of planetary systems celestial mechanics, • star and planet formation astrometry, geophysics, • star cluster dynamics stellar systems, galactic and • hydro- and plasma dynamics extra galactic dynamics. • galactic and extragalactic dynamics The 2011 awardee, selected at the division • cosmology meeting in Austin, • coordinate systems Texas, is Dr. Evangelia • astrometry. Athanassoula, Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille and Observatoire Astronomique de Marseille-Provence. The Student Stipend winners for 2011 were Rebekah Dawson (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), Daniel Jontof- Lia Athanassoula is distinguished for her perceptive work Hutter (UMd), and Sarah Miller (Oxford Astrophys. and in numerical dynamics of disk galaxies. With Jerry A. CalTech). Sellwood in 1986, she demonstrated how the gravitational field of the dark halo and the velocity dispersion of the disk can both contribute to the stability of the disk. Her studies of angular momentum transport between galactic bars and dark halos showed how angular momentum transport can affect the strength, shape and pattern speed of the bar: the dark halo can make a bar become more prominent, instead of simply stabilizing the disk against bar formation as was previously believed. Her pioneering papers (1992ff) on gas flows and shock structures in galactic bars, and the observable consequences made her the leading authority on this subject. Her more recent work on the formation of boxy and peanut-shaped bulges via bar formation is particularly useful because of its direct application to the large amount of new observational data on the kinematics of the Galactic bulge and boxy bulges in external systems. Her institute in Marseille is a leading Rebekah Dawson receives Student Stipend Award from center for research and postdoctoral training in galactic Marc Murison

16 American Astronomical Society http://aas.org Washington News continued from page 24

scientific research. Discretionary spending is divided between security and non-security (plus covered entitlements). The cut to Medicare is capped at 2%. NASA and NSF funding are in non-security. Before the cuts go into effect, the discretionary spending is revised to be about 50/50 between security and non- security without changing the capped amount. The security portion of discretionary spending is reduced and put into non-security.

The triggered cuts apply to the revised version of discretionary spending by a formula. Starting with $1.2T, subtract the amount of deficit reduction achieved by the enactment of a joint committee bill, reduce the difference by 18% to account for debt service, and spread out evenly over the decade, nine A NASA engineer looks on as the first six flight-ready primary years. mirror segments for the James Webb Space Telescope are prepared for cryogenic testing at NASA's Marshall Space Security discretionary spending will reduce from Flight Center last April. Courtesy NASA/MSFC/David $546B to $492B if the Committee fails entirely. That is Higginbotham. 10% less, a $54B cut in defense discretionary spending in 2013. Non-security discretionary spending will reduce from $501B to $461B if the Committee fails level should not be achieved by proposing across-the- entirely. That is 8% less, a $40B cut in non-security board reductions.” discretionary spending in 2013. Medicare spending would be cut 2% in 2013. In FY2011 NASA received $18.5B and NSF $6.873B. A reduction of 10% to NSF is almost half of the Whether the Joint Committee is successful or not, the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate where discretionary percentage cuts are on top of the 2013 share both Astronomy and Physics are funded. For NASA a 10% of the $917B of discretionary spending cuts enacted when reduction is about twice the whole Astrophysics budget, the Budget Control Act is signed. Discretionary spenders including JWST. will correctly argue that they are paying once up front to offset the initial $900B debt limit increases, and then A reduction in spending will be happening from Congress again to offset almost all of the $1.2T debt limit increase and from the White House. Science and innovation if the Joint Committee process fails. will feel the hit. The concern is not only for the next generation of scientific facilities like JWST, but also Congress is not the only branch of government tightening inspiring the next generation of young scientists. the purse strings. On 17 August 2011, the Office of Management and Budget in The White House released a Where is the hope? The hope is that next year, 2012, is an memo for the Heads of Departments and Agencies giving election year. budget guidance for FY2013:

“Your overall agency request for 2013 should be at 1 least 5 percent below your 2011 enacted discretionary http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/images/08/02/ appropriation. As discussed at the recent Cabinet meetings, rel12a.pdf your 2013 budget submission should also identify 2http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/whats- additional discretionary funding reductions that would bring your request to a level that is at least 10 percent congress-less-popular-than-among-other-things-human- below your 2011 enacted discretionary appropriation … cloning/2011/08/09/gIQAznM26I_story.html These 5 and 10 percent reductions from the 2011 enacted

September/October 2011 17 Agency News

News from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) James Manning, Executive Director

Reaching Out

You can’t stay in your corner of the forest waiting for But it was only when the dust cleared that I realized others to come to you. that the conference’s bracketing plenaries—the opening You have to go to them sometimes. keynote and the closing talk—had reinforced an important -A. A. Milne if obvious sub-theme: that it really does take two to tango, to make the connections we seek, and to advance science literacy as a result. As I write, I am (reasonably) fresh from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s annual conference—a national EPO The keynoter was Chris Mooney, author of The Republican conference held in Baltimore at the very beginning of War on Science, Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the August, in conjunction with the co-hosting Space Telescope Battle Over Global Warming, and Unscientific America Science Institute (STScI) and American Geophysical Union (the latter with co-author Sheril Kirshenbaum). In his (AGU) and a host of co-sponsors including the American presentation, “Unscientific America: What’s the Problem? Astronomical Society (AAS). What’s the Solution?”, Mooney laid out the state of science literacy today, and argued that it’s not just a case of the We met in grand style in the beautifully restored old public not “getting” science; it’s about the social, cultural Baltimore Masonic Temple, managed by the Tremont and political factors that affect whether or not people are Plaza Hotel, and had three grand days of posters, short even receptive to the message. And that if things are to orals, longer hands-on demonstrations and professional change, the scientific community needs to actively reach development sessions, and networking opportunities. The out to people, and engage them where they live, not where opening reception at the Maryland Science Center featured we do. a screening of the “Hubble 3D” IMAX film introduced by Frank Summers and the “Hubble Repairman” himself, How? Neil deGrasse Tyson, in the closing plenary “Tales John Grunsfeld, and one evening, STScI provided a from the Twitterverse,” offered one fascinating example. quartet of scientists to share Hubble-enabled research After likewise laying out the sorry state of science literacy highlights—all knitted together by the conference theme today, Tyson entertainingly related his experience in of “Connecting People to Science.” engaging the denizens who live online in Twitter mode. Through clever 140-character (max) posts, he uses popular The communal plenary sessions also built on this theme. culture to provide and propagate soupçons of science— observations, subtle commentaries, mini-exercises in NASA Chief Scientist Waleed Abdalati pointed out the scientific and critical thinking. The effort has earned him importance of space-based imagery in connecting people 200,000 followers and counting (admittedly less than Lady to a greater understanding of our home planet. David Gaga and the Kardashians, but growing), and a spot on Blewett of Johns Hopkins University and the Applied Time Magazine’s 140 best Twitter feeds. Physics Laboratory demonstrated how missions like

MESSENGER, LRO, and the Vesta-circling Dawn are That’s saying something—in all meanings of the phrase. linking us in new ways to other rocky worlds of the solar system. Karen Peterson, Jolene Jesse, and Laura And the one-two Mooney-Tyson punch nicely illustrated Huerta Migus of the Nationals Girls Collaborative Project, not only the challenges of improving science literacy, but NSF, and ASTC respectively discussed the challenges of the importance of proactive and cultural engagement of connecting girls in particular to science career trajectories. people by the science and EPO communities. And Randi Korn of Randi Korn and Associates spoke of the challenges of evaluating the effectiveness of our informal So—how are you reaching out to the public, where they st education efforts to connect in the 21 century. live, in ways that don’t simply present science, but also

18 American Astronomical Society http://aas.org Agency News Agency News continued

work to change attitudes and receptivity to the message? to us. As Owl once told Pooh, that’s being an “astute and Let us know—and come share your experience at our next helpful bear.” national EPO conference! May we be successful in our efforts, as we all work to As Winnie-the-Pooh’s creator once wrote, we need to be enable a more scientifically literate future. willing to leave our corner of the forest and go to those we want to reach out to, rather than waiting for them to come

News from NSF Division of Astronomical Sciences (AST) Jim Ulvestad, Division Director, [email protected]

FY2011 Budget Information and Future the actual budget is, in fact, another decrease relative to Budget Outlook FY2011, significant program reductions may be required. The NSF Operating Plan for FY2011 has been approved The Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction by Congress and is in the process of being executed. (MREFC) line of the budget was cut back to $117M in The operations budget for AST is $236.6M, down from FY2011, compared to the President’s request of $165M. $246.5M in FY2010. This decrease of approximately 4% The FY2012 President’s request asked for $226M for the is only the second decrease in the AST budget since 1995; MREFC line, but this has been reduced to $100M in the there was a small decrease of less than 1% between 2004 first appropriations committee markup in the House of and 2005. AST anticipated the possibility of this decrease Representatives. Readers should recall that this budget and smoothed it out by forward-funding some mid-scale line is NSF-wide, and funds major construction in all and University Radio Observatory programs in FY2010. disciplines, not just astronomy and physics. If the lower However, the Re-STAR program for instrumentation MREFC budgets were to become the norm, progress of improvement in medium size optical/infrared telescopes the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) and had no additional funding allocated in FY2011, and funding other projects currently being funded by MREFC would be for the Telescope Systems Instrumentation Program (TSIP) difficult to maintain. This, in turn, would cause potentially was reduced. Finally, the planned increase for operations large delays in future construction projects across the NSF. of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) was approximately balanced by a scheduled decrease in funding for the Expanded Very Large Array (EVLA) program as AST Portfolio Review it nears its conclusion. These various steps allowed us to We have been working hard to empanel our Portfolio keep the total funding for the Astronomy and Astrophysics Review Committee, and hope to be finished with that Research Grants (AAG) program approximately level with process by the time this newsletter is issued. We thank that in FY2010; the final AAG success rate in FY2011 will those in the community who have sent us thoughtful be between 19.5% and 20.0%. nominations for membership. Further information is available at http://www.nsf.gov/mps/ast/ast_portfolio_ The President’s budget request for AST for FY2012 asks review.jsp. for $249.1M. However, as readers will note from following their favorite news media, the federal discretionary budget is under severe pressure, and there is no guarantee that the AST budget will be close to the requested number. If

September/October 2011 19 Announcements

NSO Observing Proposal Deadline 15 Nov In particular, independent researchers have used publicly The current deadline for submitting observing proposals available data to both confirm the existence of Kepler to the National Solar Observatory is 15 November candidate planets and provide new details on planetary 2011 for the first quarter of 2012. Information is systems far beyond our own. For example, one team available from the NSO Telescope Allocation Committee used the 1,235 planet candidate catalogue to confirm the at P.O. Box 62, Sunspot, NM 88349 for Sacramento planet KOI-428b, a hot Jupiter, and further characterize Peak facilities ([email protected]) or P.O. Box 26732, its planetary system. Tucson, AZ 85726 for Kitt Peak facilities (kptac@nso. edu). Instructions may be found at http://www.nso. For a perspective on the body of referred journal articles edu/general/observe/. A web-based observing-request from the science community, as well as those led by form is at http://www2.nso.edu/cgi-bin/nsoforms/ the Kepler science team, see the following publication obsreq/obsreq.cgi. Users’ Manuals are available tables on exoplanet science (http://keplergo.arc.nasa. at http://nsosp.nso.edu/dst/ for the SP facilities gov/PublicationsExoplanets.shtml) and astrophysics and http://nsokp.nso.edu/ for the KP facilities. An (http://keplergo.arc.nasa.gov/PublicationsAstrophysics. observing-run evaluation form can be obtained at ftp:// shtml). ftp.nso.edu/observing_templates/evaluation.form.txt. Enthusiasm from the public about the search for alien Proposers are reminded that each quarter is typically planets has also generated profound results powered by oversubscribed, and it is to the proposer’s advantage to the Kepler data. The popularity of sites like the Planet provide all information requested to the greatest possible Hunters (http://www.planethunters.org), which enlists extent no later than the official deadline. Observing the help of citizen scientists to identify planet candidates time at National Observatories is provided as support in the Kepler data, demonstrates the groundswell of broad to the astronomical community by the National Science public interest in exoplanet research. Since its launch in Foundation. December 2010 this website has been used by 40,000 “planet hunters” worldwide to analyze more than 3.5 NASA’s Kepler Mission Releases New Data million observations, netting 69 potential candidates, all from their web browsers. to Public Archive The Kepler science team announced on 12 August the For more information about Kepler, visit: http://www. next release of data to the public archive. Quarter three nasa.gov/kepler. science data collected during the months of September to December 2009 will be available for download on 23 September 2011 from the Multimission Archive at Cosmic Origins Program Analysis Group STScI (MAST) at: http://archive.stsci.edu/kepler. (COPAG) Workshop Kepler is the first NASA mission capable of finding The Cosmic Origins Program Analysis Group (COPAG) Earth-size planets in or near the “habitable zone,” the will be holding a community workshop 22-23 September region in a planetary system where liquid water can at Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, exist on the surface of the orbiting planet. Although MD. The key goal of this workshop is to determine additional observations will be needed over time to reach technology priorities and a draft technology roadmap that milestone, Kepler is detecting planets and planet for future strategic missions within NASA’s Cosmic candidates with a wide range of sizes and orbital distances Origins program. This roadmap will provide necessary to help us better understand our place in the galaxy. input to and help guide the NASA technology program. Possible future Cosmic Origins strategic missions include “The team recognizes a strong demand from the scientific a 4-meter class UV/optical/near IR mission, specifically community for more public data,” said Nick Gautier, called out by New Worlds, New Horizons, an 8-m class Kepler Mission project scientist. “This is evident by the UVOIR mission, and far IR/sub-mm missions. The 4-8 m volume of papers on exoplanet science as well as stellar UVOIR mission would likely serve a dual purpose as a astrophysics that have been published using Kepler data.” nearby near-Earth exoplanet imaging and spectroscopy mission. The concepts and technologies will be discussed

20 American Astronomical Society http://aas.org Announcements continued in the context of this mission requirement. Topics Seeking Nominees for COSPAR Awards and for the workshop include: science objectives of future Medals Cosmic Origins strategic missions, candidate mission COSPAR, the Committee on Space Research of the concepts, technology requirements for these missions, International Council for Science, is seeking candidates technology readiness, required investments to mature to be nominated for COSPAR awards and medals, which these technologies, and a logical sequence of development recognize the outstanding achievements of space scientists steps and decision points to obtain the necessary new throughout the world. The awards will be presented at capabilities (roadmap). All interested members of the the 39th COSPAR Scientific Assembly, to be held in community are invited and will be accommodated on a Mysore, India, 14-22 July 2012. first come, first served basis.

It is important to honor the contributions of your For more information visit: http://www.stsci.edu/ colleagues. Please take a moment to consider nominees institute/conference/copag2011 for the following awards and medals: Detector Virtual Workshop COSPAR Space Science Award honors a scientist The Center for Detectors at the Rochester Institute of • who has made outstanding contributions to space Technology presents the “Detector Virtual Workshop,” a year-long program dedicated to the advancement of science. UVOIR detectors. The objective of the workshop is • COSPAR International Cooperation Medal is to enable future detector capabilities by disseminating awarded to a scientist (or group of scientists) who knowledge; increasing interdisciplinary opportunities; has made distinguished contributions to space science enhancing interactions between academia, industry, and and whose work has contributed significantly to the government; and providing student and professional promotion of international scientific cooperation. training opportunities. There will be a particular emphasis • COSPAR William Nordberg Medal is presented to on informing the scientific community of potential a scientist who has made a distinguished contribution detector developments in the next ten years for next- to the application of space science. generation observing platforms. The workshop will • COSPAR Massey Award is awarded in recognition include avenues for brainstorming by all participants, and of outstanding contributions to the development of it will culminate in a report that summarizes promising space research, interpreted in the widest sense, in detector developments. The workshop will start in which a leadership role is of particular importance. September 2011. • COSPAR Distinguished Service Medal serves to honor extraordinary services rendered to COSPAR An organizing committee will select speakers who can over many years. deliver material to support the objective of the workshop, • Vikram Sarabhai Award is awarded by the Indian especially those with the ability to present the most Space Research Organization for outstanding promising detector technologies. A subset of invitations contributions to space research in developing will be reserved specifically for talks that primarily present countries. Eligible candidates for next year’s award grand challenges and breakthroughs. The talks will must have performed relevant work mainly in the be given twice per month, one at RIT and the other period 2006-2011. at the speaker’s home institution. The talks will be • Jeoujang Jaw Award is bestowed by the Chinese delivered to audiences around the world through RIT’s Academy of Sciences and is intended to recognize Adobe Connect streaming audio/video facility, and they scientists who have made distinguished pioneering will be recorded and archived for later public use. Talks contributions to promoting space research, will be advertised through community newsletters and establishing new space science research branches, and email exploders. founding new exploration programs. • Zeldovich Medal is conferred by the Russian To be put on the distribution list for talk announcements Academy of Sciences to scientists, under 36 years or to propose a talk, contact Don Figer ([email protected]. of age on the last day of 2011, for excellence and edu). To view the talks, click on the “DVW” link at achievements. Medals are presented to a scientist in http://ridl.cfd.rit.edu/. This workshop is funded by a each of COSPAR’s Scientific Commissions. grant from NSF. continued on page 23

September/October 2011 21 Calendar of Events

AAS & AAS Division Meetings 100th Annual Meeting of the First International Planetary Cave American Association of Variable Star Research Workshop: Implications for 12th Divisional HEAD Meeting Observers (AAVSO) Astrobiology, Climate, Detection, and 7-10 September 2011, Newport, RI 5-8 October 2011, Boston, MA Exploration http://www.confcon.com/head2011/ Rebecca Turner ([email protected]) 25-28 October 2011, Carlsbad, NM http://www.aavso.org/aavso-100th- Tim Titus ([email protected]) 43rd Annual DPS Meeting annual-meeting http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/ 2-7 October 2011, Nantes, France caves2011/ http://dps.aas.org/meetings/ Fourth Biennial Frank N. Bash 44th Annual DPS Meeting Symposium 21st Midwest Relativity Meeting 14-19 October 2012, Reno, NV 9-11 October, 2011, The University of 4-5 November 2011, Univ of Illinois at http://dps.aas.org/meetings/ Texas Department of Astronomy and Urbana-Champaign McDonald Observatory Vasileios Paschalidis 219th AAS Meeting www.bashsymposium.org ([email protected]) 8-12 January 2012, Austin, TX http://aas.org/meetings/aas219 Archean to Anthropocene - the past is Workshop on the Formation of the the key to the future First Solids in the Solar System HAD Meeting 9-12 October 2011, Minneapolis, MN 7-9 November 2011, Kauai, HI 8-10 January 2012, Austin, TX Pamela Fistell ([email protected]) Sasha Krot ([email protected]) http://had.aas.org/meetings/ http://www.geosociety.org/ http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/ meetings/2011/ 220th AAS Meeting solids2011/ 10-14 June 2012, Anchorage, AK Hinode 5 http://aas.org/meetings/aas220 *Fermi and Jansky – Our Evolving 11-14 October 2011, Cambridge, MA Understanding of AGN Other Events Kathy Reeves ([email protected]) 10-12 November 2011, Harbourtowne http://hinode5.cfa.harvard.edu/ Conference Center, St. Michaels, MD Joint Assembly: CPS 8th International Roopesh Ojha ([email protected]) AGN Winds in Charleston School of Planetary Sciences & JSPS- http://fermi.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/ 15-18 October 2011, Charleston, SC DST Asia Academic Seminar fermi_jansky/ 26 September - 1 October 2011, Dr. George Chartas ([email protected]) Minami-Awaji Royal Hotel http://chartasg.people.cofc.edu/ First Kepler Science Conference https://www.cps-jp.org/~pschool/ winds4/winds/Welcome.html pub/2011-09-26/index.html 5-9 December 2011, Moffett Field, CA Matt Holman Signposts of Planets Through the Infrared Looking Glass: ([email protected]) 18-20 October 2011, Greenbelt, MD A Dusty View of Galaxy and AGN http://kepler.nasa.gov/Science/ [email protected] Evolution keplerconference/ 2-5 October 2011, Pasadena, CA http://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/667/ http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/ conferences/signposts.html exgal2011/ Portable Meter-Class Astronomy *Midwest Astrochemistry Meeting 2011 20-22 January 2012, Waimea, HI IAU Symposium 286: Comparative 21-22 October 2011, Urbana, IL Russell Genet ([email protected]) Magnetic Minima: Characterizing David E. Woon ([email protected]) Bruce Holenstein ([email protected]) Quiet Times in the Sun and Stars http://midwest.astrochemistry.us/ www.AltAzInitiative.org 3-7 October 2011, Mendoza, Argentina MWAM11/ [email protected] The Physics of Astronomical Transients Decoupling Civil Timekeeping from Galaxy Mergers in an Evolving Earth Rotation Universe 21-27 January 2012, Aspen Center for 5-6 October 2011, Exton, PA 23-28 October 2011, Hualien, Taiwan Physics Rob Seaman ([email protected]) http://events.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw/ Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz ([email protected]) http://futureofutc.org/ workshop/20111023/registration.php http://cargo.ucsc.edu/tasc/aspen/

22 American Astronomical Society http://aas.org *Planets around Stellar Remnants Dawn Gelino ([email protected]) *Structure and Dynamics of Disk 23-27 January 2012, Arecibo http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/wfir2012/ Galaxies Observatory, Arecibo, Puerto Rico 12-16 August 2013, Winthrop Alex Wolszczan ([email protected]) *Outflows, Winds and Jets: From Rockefeller Institute, Petit Jean http://www.mpia-hd.mpg.de/ Young Stars to Supermassive Black Mountain, AR PLANETS2012/index.html Holes Marc Seigar ([email protected]) 3-6 March 2012, Charlottesville, VA http://astro.host.ualr.edu/conferences/ *Science with a Wide-field Infrared galaxies2013/ https://science.nrao.edu/facilities/ Telescope in Space alma/naasc-workshops/jets2012 (held in tandem with the 16th *New or revised listings International Conference on Gravitational Microlensing) Centenary Symposium 2012: Note: Listed are meetings or other events 13-15 February 2012, Pasadena, CA Discovery of Cosmic Rays that have come to our attention. Due to Dawn Gelino ([email protected]) 12-14 June 2012, Denver, CO space limitations, we publish notice of http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/wfir2012/ Jonathan F. Ormes meetings 1) occurring in North, South ([email protected]) and Central America; 2) meetings of the First Light and Faintest Dwarfs: http://portfolio.du.edu/CR2012 IAU; and 3) meetings as requested by Extreme Probes of the Cold Dark AAS members. Meeting publication may Matter Paradigm Ultraviolet Astronomy: HST and only be assured by emailing 13-17 February 2012, KITP, Beyond [email protected]. Meetings that fall within UC Santa Barbara 18-21 June 2012, Koloa, HI 30 days of publication are not listed. Julio F. Navarro ([email protected]) James Green ([email protected]) http://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/activities/ A comprehensive list of world-wide dbdetails?acro=dwarfgal-c12 astronomy meetings is maintained by *Centenary Symposium 2012: Liz Bryson, Librarian C-F-H Telescope, Discovery of Cosmic Rays *16th International Conference on in collaboration with the Canadian 26-28 June 2012, Denver, CO Gravitational Microlensing Astronomy Data Centre, Victoria, BC. (held in tandem with the Science with a Jonathan F. Ormes The list may be accessed and meeting Wide-field Infrared Telescope in Space) ([email protected]) information entered at 15-17 February 2012, Pasadena, CA http://portfolio.du.edu/CR2012 cadcwww.hia.nrc.ca/meetings.

Announcements continued

Additional details concerning the awards, together the aperture range of 0.5 to 2.0 meters. Advances in with instructions and nomination forms, can be found lightweight, low-cost meniscus, foam glass, and spin- at http://cosparhq.cnes.fr/Awards/awards.htm. cast epoxy mirrors will be covered, as will low cost Completed nominations forms must be received by the active primary and secondary mirror systems. The COSPAR Secretariat in Paris no later than 30 November structural design of lightweight telescopes will be 2011. Questions can be addressed to David H. Smith, examined with a detailed look at a recently designed executive secretary of the U.S. National Committee for portable 1.5 meter telescope that weighs less than COSPAR, at [email protected]. 500 lb. Instruments and observational programs well suited to meter-class telescopes include high-speed photometry, near IR photometry, low resolution Meter-Class Astronomy: Telescopes, spectroscopy, and polarimetry. There will be special Instruments, and Observational Programs sessions and a workshop on high-speed photometry and 20-22 January 2012, Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope occultation observations. The conference will conclude Headquarters, Waimea, Hawaii with a panel discussion on the current status and future prospects for meter-class telescopes, instruments, and The conference is devoted to the development, observational programs. To register visit http://www. instrumentation, and use of meter-class telescopes— AltAzInitiative.org. with emphasis on lightweight, low cost telescopes in

September/October 2011 23 Washington News Bethany Johns, John Bahcall Public Policy Fellow, [email protected]

Debt Limit Deal Effect on Science Take a deep breath, take another, and The deal ties the amount of cuts to the amount the debt then one more, because the federal debt limit can be raised. The debt limit was immediately raised debate is far from over. to prevent the government from defaulting on its loans. However, there are conditions on when and how much the debt limit can be raised. The President may raise the You are not alone if you are frustrated with your members debt limit in two steps: of Congress and how they have been doing their job. Congress’s approval rating sunk to a notably all-time low after the passage of the Budget Control Act of 2011 Step 1: (S. 365), also know as the Debt Limit Deal. A recent There is $900 billion available now. The immediate CNN poll1 found that just 14 percent of Americans increase is $400 billion. Congress has the opportunity surveyed approved of how Congress has been doing its to disapprove of the debt limit increase by 22 September job. A Washington Post poll2 found that only 17 percent 2011. If Congress fails to pass a resolution to disapprove, of Americans surveyed thought their representative should then the debt limit will increase an extra $500 billion. be reelected in 2012. February 2012 is the approximate time when the first $900 billion of the debt limit increase runs out, though the President can ask for more based on the results of the The Debt Limit Deal reads like a complicated logic Joint Committee. diagram. Reading it may make you wonder if Congress took advice to better understand science and took a course in Boolean algebra. But how does the Debt Limit Step 2: Deal affect you? Your research? And astronomy? The Joint Committee is formed and tasked with cutting $1.2T from the budget over the next decade (with a goal of $1.5T). 23 November 2011, is the deadline First, the deal caps discretionary spending for the next for Congress to vote on the Joint Committee’s plan. decade. Discretionary spending is the wedge of spending Congress has the choice to decide where the $1.2T in cuts that includes every penny of federally funded research. come from or on 15 January 2012, there will be triggered, The discretionary cap is $1,043B for the federal FY2012, across-the-board, spending cuts in discretionary spending. a decrease from the $1,049B enacted for FY2011. The House started debate back in the spring on discretionary There are three possible outcomes. allocations capped at $1,019B. The Senate will probably use the $1,043B figure for appropriations and use the • If Joint Committee negotiations implode OR agreed “extra” $24B to refund pet projects, such as Senator on cuts are less than $1.2T, then the President gets a Mikulski’s support for the James Webb Space Telescope debt limit increase of $1.2T and discretionary spending (JWST). The discrepancies in the appropriations between has automatic triggered cuts. the House and Senate ensure an omnibus FY2012 • If Joint Committee negotiations lead to cuts between spending bill to be debated in conference. $1.2-1.5T, then the President gets a debt limit increase equal to amount of cuts. The deadline for passing appropriations bills for the next • If Joint Committee negotiations lead to cuts greater fiscal year is 30 September 2011—less than a month once than $1.5T, then the President gets a debt limit increase Congress is back from recess. There will be a continuing of $1.5T. resolution (CR) funding the government at previous year levels likely to extend until 23 November 2011, which is the deadline for Congress to vote on a bill by the Joint The across-the-board triggered spending cuts will have Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. a profound impact on federal funding for science and

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24 American Astronomical Society http://aas.org