The Decade of Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics (1991) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix B: Status of the Profession
Appendix B: Status of the Profession
Pages 150-160
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From page 150... ...
After correcting the current membership of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) , over 5,100, for foreign members and other small factors, the Status of the Profession Panel (Working Papers)
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Recent surveys show that 12 percent of the doctoral degrees awarded by astronomy departments in 1987 went to women and that 20 percent of the total astronomy graduate population is female. These fractions are similar to or higher than the female membership of the AAS and suggest that the percentage of women in astronomy will continue to rise slowly during the l990s.
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From page 152... ...
Not including astronomers holding postdoctoral appointments, 17 percent of the academic astronomers hold jobs as research associates, semipermanent academic positions dependent on outside funding. In the 1980s, the fraction of PhD astronomers working at universities decreased markedly, while the number of researchers depending on federal funding rose [see the report of the Status of the Profession Panel, Working Papers (NRC, 1991~.
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From page 153... ...
The NSF provides the major share of funding for ground-based astronomy, while NASA provides all the funding for space astronomy. Historically, ground-based optical astronomy has attracted additional private and state support, radio astronomy has depended heavily on federal funding, and space astronomy has been entirely federally supported.
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From page 154... ...
However, there has been a steady decline in this level to below 5 percent over the past decade (see Figure B.21. Funding from the NSF supports three major areas, the national centers, university observatories, and individual research grants (Figure B.3~.
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and number (open rectangles) of NSF research grants awarded in astronomy and astrophysics, corrected for the portion of the research budget devoted to operation and construction of university facilities.
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Many IUE researchers write multiple proposals to support themselves, their postdoctoral fellows, and their graduate students. In the rest of the NASA's astrophysics program, the grant sizes are significantly larger, about $83,000, although their size has decreased over the decade.
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From page 157... ...
.5 NASA astronomy budget (1990 $M) divided between large programs, including the Great Observatories; moderate programs like the Explorers; and small projects, including research grants and the airborne program.
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Radio Astronomy The major facilities for millimeter wavelength radio astronomy are discussed in Chapter 3 (see Table 3.2~. The major facilities for centimeter wavelength astronomy are described in Tables B.3 and B.4.
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APPENDIX B TABLE B.2 U.S. Fraction of World Telescope Area for Large (> 3 m)
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bLong-term design goal 3 mm. TABLE B.4 Centimeter Wavelength Radio Telescopes—Major Radio Interferometers No.
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