STScI Annual Report 2002: A Living Mission

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54 achievements Our academic environment Our fellowship programs infuse the Institute and the Hubble program with the freshness of youthful exploration and discovery. Our visitor programs promote intellectual exchange and research connections with the world community. Our symposia, colloquia, and topical sessions promote discourse and debate about emerging results. We invest in the Institute research infrastructure and provide competitive access to funding for promising research projects. We manage the Hubble Fellowship Program, selecting recipients on the basis of their excellence in scientific research and appraising them annually. In 2002, we selected 12 new Hubble Fellows and supported approximately 30 Hubble Fellows nationwide. We organized the yearly Hubble Fellowship Symposium, which allows all Fellows to present their latest scientific results. We also managed the Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, selecting the recipients based on the strength of their proposed research. In addition, we host many regular postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, whose research is guided and supported by individual staff members. In 2002, we had 2 Institute Fellows and hosted approximately 30 regular postdoctoral fellows. We also hosted 22 graduate students, including those enrolled in the Physics and Astronomy Department at The Johns Hopkins University. We conduct a variety of programs to host scientific visitors at the Institute. Our Collaborative Visitor Program supports collaborators on research projects with Institute staff members for visits of one to four weeks. Our Journal Club Visitor Program supports external scientists who come to give one or more seminars during visits of one to two weeks. Our Distinguished Visitor Program supports outstanding astronomers to join the Institute for typically one month. In 2002, we hosted 2 Distinguished Visitors, 12 Journal Club Visitors, and 39 Collaborative Visitors. Each spring, we organize a symposium on an astronomical topic of major interest with important new developments. Usually, 100 to 200 astronomers attend these symposia, drawn by the offerings of cutting-edge research and invited speakers of the first rank. The 2002 symposium, entitled “Astrophysics of Life,” brought together biologists, geologists, and astronomers to work on understanding the foundations upon which searches for life in the universe must be based, and which bear on the nature and origin of life. The Director’s Discretionary Research Fund (DDRF) supports both short- and long-term staff research programs as well as infrastructure investments to bolster our research capabilities. In 2002, the DDRF supported about 50 scientific projects and allocated approximately $475,000 in funding to 25 new projects. Services to scientists In order to maintain staff excellence and to continue to attract first-class scientists from the outside community, we are committed to fostering the careers of the individual staff scientists, especially junior scientists, by providing mentoring, advising on professional development, and conducting annual science evaluations. We collect issues that may affect whole categories of scientific staff and address them through the Institute’s management structure. We perform an annual evaluation of each AURA scientist based on his or her summary of scientific achievements for the past year. A committee consisting of the Associate Director for Science and a selection of junior and senior science staff members evaluates the summaries and determines the salary merit increases. We instituted Agenda Groups to address career-related issues for all categories of our science staff, from graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to senior astronomers. The Agenda Groups have continued to raise a variety of issues affecting the productivity of the Institute staff. We strategize about the resolution of such issues at regular meetings between the Science Division Office and representatives of the Agenda Groups. When appropriate, we coordinate solutions within the Institute management structure. In 2002, most practical issues were resolved successfully.
achievements Goal 8: Promote new missions We will continue to work with the community to investigate and advocate new missions that will enable further scientific advances. The Institute has a special responsibility to foster new missions and mission concepts, both for the vitality they afford the astronomical community and for the means they offer us to share the expertise we have developed in support of our prime mission, the Hubble Space Telescope. Institute staff members have honed the technique of ‘science systems engineering’, which encompasses a full range of capabilities in science operations, engineering, systems architecture, programming, and outreach. These skills have matured during the course of operating Hubble. The Institute has built several productive partnerships to provide our expertise and products to other missions, including the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer, the National Virtual Observatory, and the Kepler Discovery mission. Individual scientists are members of numerous science working groups for community-based missions, including James Webb Space Telescope, Space Interferometry Mission, and Terrestrial Planet Finder. Others are members of science teams on missions selected for flight within the past year, such as Spectroscopy and Photometry of the IGM’s Diffuse Radiation (SPIDR), chosen in 2002 as a Small Explorer Mission. Also in 2002, the Institute established the Community Missions Office to provide focused support to individual scientists and to missions developed and led by members of the external science and technical communities. This office seeks to build new partnerships and to manage our diverse portfolio of smallermission involvements. STScI AR 02 | A Living Mission achievements 55
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STScI Annual Report 2002: A Living Mission

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