| 6th of May 2016 |
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| ATNF Colloquium |
| Recent Science and Upcoming Changes for NRAO/US Radio Astronomy |
| by Tony Beasley (NRAO) |
| Abstract. The outlook for radio
astronomy in the US is complex at present. New instruments and upgrades are
producing exciting science (several recent results will be presented), but
university-level instrumentation and faculty support is waning. A process to
consider major radio astronomy initiatives in the 2020s has begun, and
significant restructuring of NRAO will occur later this year. The funding
outlook predicted by the National Science Foundation and other agencies is
bleak, and US community interest in reengaging with the international SKA
project is mixed. In this talk I will review these issues, and suggest some
critical interactions needed between the US domestic and broader international
communities to enable progress towards new science. Figure caption: A young double-star system in the Perseus Molecular Cloud (top right), imaged with the VLA (background image). This pair would fit within the orbit of Neptune in our Solar System. - CREDIT: Tobin, et al., NRAO/AUI/NSF. |