637 University of Texas McDonald Observatory and Department of Astronomy Austin, Texas 78712 This report covers the period 1 September 1994 31 August Academic 1995. Named Professors: Frank N. Bash ~Frank N. Edmonds Regents Professor in Astronomy!;Ge´rard H. de Vau- couleurs ~Jane and Roland Blumberg Professor Emeritus in 1. ORGANIZATION, STAFF, AND ACTIVITIES Astronomy!; David S. Evans ~Jack S. Josey Centennial Pro- fessor Emeritus in Astronomy!; Neal J. Evans II ~Edward 1.1 Description of Facilities Randall, Jr. Centennial Professor!, William H. Jefferys ~Har- The astronomical components of the University of Texas lan J. Smith Centennial Professor in Astronomy!; David L. at Austin are the Department of Astronomy, the Center for Lambert ~Isabel McCutcheon Harte Centennial Chair in As- Advanced Studies in Astronomy, and McDonald Observatory tronomy!; R. Edward Nather ~Rex G. Baker, Jr. and Mc- at Mount Locke. Faculty, research, and administrative staff Donald Observatory Centennial Research Professor in As- offices of all components are located on the campus in Aus- tronomy!; Edward L. Robinson ~William B. Blakemore II tin. The Department of Astronomy operates a 23-cm refrac- Regents Professor in Astronomy!; John M. Scalo ~Jack S. tor and a 41-cm reflector on the Austin campus for instruc- Josey Centennial Professor in Astronomy!; Gregory A. tional, test, and research purposes. Shields ~Jane and Roland Blumberg Centennial Professor in McDonald Observatory is in West Texas, near Fort Davis, Astronomy!; Steven Weinberg ~Regents Professor and Jack on Mount Locke and Mount Fowlkes. The primary instru- S. Josey–Welch Foundation Chair in Science!; and J. Craig ments are 2.7-m, 2.1-m, 91-cm, and 76-cm reflecting tele- Wheeler ~Samuel T. and Fern Yanagisawa Regents Profes- scopes and a 76-cm telescope dedicated to laser ranging to sorship in Astronomy!. the moon and artificial satellites. Professors: Michel Breger ~adjunct!, James N. Douglas, McDonald Observatory is also a partner in the Caltech Roman Smoluchowski ~emeritus!, Paul Shapiro, Chris Submillimeter Observatory on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Sneden, Paul A. Vanden Bout ~adjunct!, Ethan Vishniac, Derek Wills, and Don Winget. Associate Professors: Harriet Dinerstein, Paul M. Har- 1.2 Administration vey, Dan Jaffe, John Lacy, and R. Robert Robbins,Jr.As- sistant Professors: Beverley Wills. William H. Jefferys is Chair of the Department of As- tronomy, with Ethan Vishniac as Assistant Chair. Frank N. Non-Academic Bash is the Director of McDonald Observatory and the Cen- ter for Advanced Studies in Astronomy, Thomas G. Barnes Senior Research Scientists: Thomas G. Barnes III, Robert III is Associate Director, Chris Sneden was Associate Direc- G. Tull, Laurence M. Trafton. tor for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, and Phillip W. Kelton is Research Scientists: Edwin S. Barker, George F. Bene- Assistant Director. Mark Adams is the resident Superinten- dict, Anita L. Cochran, William D. Cochran, Artie P. dent. Hatzes, Paul D. Hemenway, Gary Hill, Daniel F. Lester, Bill Block was Chair of the McDonald Observatory and Frank Ray, Peter J. Shelus, Verne Smith, Jocelyn Tomkin, Department of Astronomy Board of Visitors, with George and Arthur L. Whipple. Christian Vice Chair and Lucy Alexander Secretary. Research Associates: Mark Cornell, Robert Duncan, Members of the Board of Visitors: Lucy Alexander, Mark Mary Kay Hemenway, Victor Krabbendam, Alexei Bivins, William Block, Malcolm Brachman, Wm. Terry Khokhlov, Larry Long, Hugo Martel, Alvin L. Mitchell, Bray, J.P. Bryan, Clifton Caldwell, George Christian, Jo- Phillip MacQueen,EdNelan, Darrell Story, and Er-Ho seph Cialone, Anne Dickson, Marshall Doke, George Fin- Zhang. ley, David Graeber, William Guest, Paul Hobby, Elizabeth Postdoctoral Research Associates and Other Visiting ´ ´ ´ Hutchinson, Katherine Johnson, Herbert Kelleher, Garland Staff: Eric Bakker, Beth Clark, Ramon GarcıaLopez, ´ Lasater, Thomas Link, Paul Meek, Arthur Miller, Bradford Guillermo Gonzalez, Christopher Johns-Krull, Inger Moody, Lillian Murray, Judy Newton, Pike Powers, Will- Jo”rgensen, Doug Kelly, Soon-Wook Kim, Jeremy King, iam Ratz, Carl Ryan, Marshall Steves, Robert Strauser, Chris Koresko,M.Kusunose, Alex Lazarian, Zong-Wei Li, ¨ Curtis Vaughan, David Weeks, Gene Wiggins, Francis Matt Richter, Judit Gyorgyey Ries, Yaron Sheffer, Keith L. Wright, and Samuel Yanagisawa. Thompson, and Lifan Wang. 1.4 Senior Research Support and Administration 1.3 Teaching and Research Personnel HET Project Manager:TomSebring. ~In the lists that follow, asterisks denote Mount Locke resi- Special Assistant to the Director: Joyce C. Sampson ~De- dents.! velopment!. 638 ANNUAL REPORT Associated member of another department: Raynor L. Anita Cochran was elected Vice Chair of the Division for Duncombe, Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Engi- Planetary Sciences of the AAS. neering Mechanics. Art Whipple served his fourth year as secretary of the Director of the McDonald Public Information Office: San- AAS Division on Dynamical Astronomy. Peter Shelus dra L. Barnes. served his 17th year as treasurer of the AAS Division on McDonald Supervisors: Gordon Wesley ~mechanical en- Dynamical Astronomy. Judit Ries is a member of the Com- gineering!, Edward Dutchover,Jr.*~administrative support!, mittee of the Division on Dynamical Astronomy. Earl Green* ~observing support!, George E. Grubb* ~physi- Anita Cochran served on the National Research Coun- cal plant!, Mark Cornell ~computing systems!, Phillip Mac- cil’s Task Group on the BMDO New Technology Orbital Queen ~CCD Development!, Alvin L. Mitchell ~engineering Observatory. support!, and Jerry R. Wiant* ~MLRS!. Craig Wheeler served on the NASA Long-Term Space Administrative Services Officer: Cecilio Martinez Astrophysics Review Panel, the NASA Hubble Fellows Se- lection Panel, and the NASA Astrophysics Advanced Mis- 1.5 Visitors and Affiliations sion Concepts Review Panel. William Cochran served on the NASA Origins of Solar Systems Program Management Dr. Rob Kennicutt, of the University of Arizona, visited Operations Working Group. Anita Cochran served on the in the fall as the Beatrice M. Tinsley Visiting Professor. He Solar System Exploration Subcommittee. gave a series of lectures on extragalactic astronomy. Bev Wills is a member of the STScI–NASA–ESA Space The Antoinette de Vaucouleurs Medal for this year was Telescope Users’ Committee. Art Whipple served on the So- awarded to Dr. Don Osterbrock, Lick Observatory. He gave lar System Panel of the Hubble Space Telescope Cycle 5 the medal lecture entitled ‘‘The Nature and Structure of Ac- Time Allocation Committee. tive Galactic Nuclei.’’ In addition, he gave the public lecture Paul Shapiro was co-Chair of the Scientific Organizing ‘‘Active Galaxies in the Universe.’’ Committee of ‘‘The Physics of the Interstellar Medium and In addition to these visitors whose visits were funded by the Intergalactic Medium,’’ Elba, Italy, June 1994. named programs, the following people were visitors to the Greg Shields served on the Scientific Organizing Com- department for periods of one week or longer: mittee for the Fifth Mexico–Texas Conference on Astrophys- ics held in Tequesquitengo, Mexico, April 2–5, 1995. M. de Fatima Saraiva, University of Brazil Tom Barnes served on the Organizing Committee for H. Dekker, European Southern Observatory IAU Commission 27 ~Variable Stars!. P. Diener, University of Copenhagen Robert Robbins was on the Organizing Committee for J. Laird, Bowling Green State University I. Lichtenstadt, IAU Commission 46. Hebrew University of Jerusalem Craig Wheeler was on the International Organizing Com- B. Milvang-Jensen, Copenhagen University Observatory mittee for the Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics I. Novikov, Theoretical Astrophysics Center, University of and the Organizing Committee for IAU Commission 42 Copenhagen ~Close Binary Systems!. K. Oliveria Filho, University of Brazil Paul Shapiro was a visiting member of the Institute for E. Oran, Naval Research Laboratory Theoretical Physics, University of California at Santa Bar- J.M. Owen, Ohio State University bara, for one week in March 1995 and on May 15–June 15 J. Stein, Hebrew University of Jerusalem quotation as a participant in the 1995 Workshop on Galaxy Formation and Radiation Backgrounds at the ITP. 1.6 Awards, Honors, and Special Activities Craig Wheeler was on the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees for the Aspen Center for Physics. He was Inger Jorgensen was awarded a Hubble Space Telescope ” also on the Admission Committee for this center. Postdoctoral Fellowship. She will use her fellowship at the Robert Robbins designed and presented a four-day ar- University of Texas at Austin. chaeoastronomy workshop for college teachers under the John Lacy was selected by his peers as the recipient of auspices of the NSF-Chautauqua program. the 1995 Board of Visitors’ Teaching Award. Larry Trafton continues to serve as an Associate Editor of Anita Cochran was a Councilor for the American Astro- Icarus. nomical Society. Mary Kay Hemenway continued to serve Greg Shields spent the spring 1995 semester on leave at as Education Officer for the AAS, on the American Institute the Department of Space Physics and Astronomy at Rice of Physics Committee on Physics Education, as a liaison to University. At Rice, he worked with Dr. R. Dufour on the National Committee on Science Standards and Assess- Hubble Space Telescope observations of dwarf irregular gal- ment of the National Research Council, and on the Steering axies and delivered