Keep Garching on your Radar June 30, 2009
Posted by AstrOBloGs in : Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASTRO), Mathematical and Computational Physics (MCP) , add a commentAstronomy, Cultural Astronomy, and NSBP at Garching, Germany
by Jarita C. Holbrook
Garching, which is outside of Munich, Germany, is the home of several institutes focused on astronomy and astrophysics. There is the European Space Organization (ESO), the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE), and the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA). Each of these Institutes have graduate students working on their Ph.D.s under the direction of their scientists, postdoctoral fellowships, and junior scientist positions. In these ways they function like universities but without the classes and without the undergraduates.
The structure of each Max Planck Institute in terms of scientists is the following, there are usually three or four directors that are permanently employed and are given a number of faculty and postdoctoral positions under them to create their research group. The director of the institute position rotates among these directors. It is very difficult to get a permanent faculty position in astronomy, but entirely possible to get a postdoctoral fellowship of up to five years.
I visited Garching for the first time from June 2 – 5, 2009. I was an official visitor along with my husband of MPE under director Reinhard Genzel who runs the Infrared and Submillimeter Astronomy group. We arrived by overnight train from Amsterdam early Tuesday morning and wandered around lost in the building searching for Dr. Genzel’s office. On the fourth floor, we passed an open door labeled “Visitors Office” and inside was NSBP member Ed Thomas!
Dr. Thomas, who is a professor at Auburn University, was visiting the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics which shares the building with MPE. He was collaborating on a dusty plasma project and gave a talk on June 3. While we were together in Garching, we had a long discussion on the development of the field of plasma physics and the way that plasma physics is perceived by the larger physics community. Studying Plasma Physics, though done in an experimental framework, requires classifying and characterizing behaviors as a means of understanding the physics.
For that last several years I have been doing survey research on the relationship of people to the night sky. As a cultural astronomer, I am interested in what can be considered common knowledge or lay knowledge of astronomy and the night sky. By lay knowledge, I mean non-expert knowledge. I created a survey called “The Sky in Our Lives Survey” to quickly and systematically gather basic information about people’s sky knowledge. On June 5, I gave a talk about my survey results to the scientists of MPE.
About 30 people attended the talk and Q & A lasted for about fifteen minutes. From the questions, I realized that perhaps an introduction to cultural astronomy was needed. It was clear to me from the questions that people thought that I was an astronomy education researcher rather than a cultural astronomer. What is the difference? An astronomy education researcher researches ways to improve teaching astronomy and conveying astronomy concepts to students and to the public. As part of their research they often survey people about what they understand about things considered to be fundamental astronomy. In contrast, cultural astronomers focus on the much broader relationship between people and the sky from ancient times to the present. We include studying astronomers through anthropology of astronomy and history of astronomy, but most of our work focuses on traditional sky knowledge around the world. For example, as a postdoc I studied people who use celestial bodies for night navigation on the ocean.
The MPE audience wanted to know if people understood some very difficult astrophysical concepts, whereas my survey was designed for learning what is ‘traditional’ sky knowledge in various populations. The survey is meant to be a tool for data collection to make cross cultural comparisons among people that have not necessarily been exposed to astrophysics. This small misunderstanding aside, the MPE audience seemed to enjoy the presentation and the Q & A.
Because of the number of Institutes related to physics and astronomy, Garching is a place that should be on the radar screen for dual career couples. I met two couples where one was employed by MPE and the other by ESO. Also, with three astronomy communities in close proximity, there is a lot of circulation, collaboration, and support which makes for a unique astronomy environment. The town of Garching is small and most of the scientists live in the surrounding area and in Munich.
What about being an African American in Germany? I had the privilege of being a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Berlin in 2001-2. I remember thinking, “Germany?” First, Germany today is not the Germany of WWII, so that myth needs to be let go. It does still have its discrimination and prejudices but it is unlikely that these will be encountered in the academic communities in which we circulate. In addition to my postdoc, I spent two summers living in Heidelberg in 2006 and 2007. I like living in Germany because it is a well kept country (read clean) and things run on time. They are environmentally conscious and have organic food stores that fit well with my vegetarian “do no harm” lifestyle. Finally, when I am in Germany, I am there to work! And, I am able to get amazing amounts of work done because of the fantastic academic support system. When I am at MPIWG, I have access to every book that I need throughout Europe both digitally and in my hand within a few days. I have children and the institutes that I have visited have always helped me arrange childcare freeing me to work normal hours without worry. In addition, there are always small pots of money to travel to other parts of Germany to meet with other scholars for discussions and collaborations and general networking.
What are the down sides? Sure, my fantasy job is to be a director of my own group at Max Planck Institute (or a Kavli Institute!), but I know it will probably always be a fantasy. As I mentioned above it is very hard to get a permanent position and there is not a clear route to career advancement, i.e., a permanent position does not lead to being a director one day. Also, in astronomy there are very few permanent positions and among these women are poorly represented. Don’t bother to ask about minorities.
Back to the positives, their postdocs are considered very prestigious in the astronomy community as is getting a Ph.D. from one of their institutes. Keep Garching on your radar.
Dr. Jarita Holbrook is a research scientist in cultural astronomy at the University of Arizona. She received her undergraduate degree in physics from Caltech and the Ph.D. degree in astronomy from the University of California-Santa Barbara. She was a postdoctoral research scholar in history of science at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. She is the co-editor or the recently published volume, African Cultural Astronomy.
Doing Business with DOE February 10, 2009
Posted by NPPblogs in : Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics (AMO), Chemical and Biological Physics (CBP), Condensed Matter and Materials Physics (CMMP), Cosmology, Gravitation, and Relativity (CGR), Earth and Planetary Systems Sciences (EPSS), Fluid and Plasma Physics (FPP), Mathematical and Computational Physics (MCP), Nuclear and Particle Physics (NPP), Photonics and Optics (POP), Physics Education Research (PER), Uncategorized , add a comment
ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?
· Paid undergraduate science research internships?
· Summer research positions for faculty and student teams at a national laboratory?
· Careers with the Federal government or national laboratories?
· Graduate fellowships and Post-Doc appointments?
The Department of Energy is looking for you…
Come see us in the DOE Pavilion
Learn how you can work alongside scientists and engineers experienced at mentoring who want to transfer science knowledge by collaborative research. These programs are for undergraduate students from four year institutions, community colleges, or for students who are preparing to become K-12 science, math or technology teachers and for undergraduate faculty. Internships are available at all DOE national labs.
Up to 8 qualified undergraduate students will be considered for placement in the summer of 2009. The laboratories also have graduate and post-doc opportunities. We look forward to seeing you in Nashville! Please come join us at Booth 304 and the other booths in the DOE Pavilion in the Exhibit Hall Thursday and Friday or at any of the following activities and workshops:
Physics Diversity Summit: Discussion with Bill Valdez, Director, Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists
Date: Wednesday, February 11
Time: 2:00 PM
Workshop: Brookhaven National Laboratory –On Using Photons
Date: Thursday, February 12
Time: 2:00 – 3:30 PM and 4:00 – 5:30 PM
Workshop: Oakridge National Laboratory—On Using Neutrons
Date: Friday, February 13
Time: 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM; 5:00-6:30 PM
Doing Business with Department of Energy—Research and Grants
Date: Friday, February 13
Time: 3:00 – 4:30 PM
Rwanda Science Minister to be Keynote Speaker at NSBP Conference February 1, 2009
Posted by International.Chair in : History, Policy and Education (HPE), Mathematical and Computational Physics (MCP) , add a commentProfessor Romain Murenzi, Minister in President’s Office in Charge of Science and Technology, Republic of Rwanda, will be the luncheon speaker at the NSBP/NSHP conference in Nashville on Thursday, February 12.
Dr. Murenzi holds a PhD in Physics from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. He was appointed Chair and Professor of the Department of Physics at Clark Atlanta University, USA. His major research interests include multidimensional continuous wavelet and its applications.
In 2001, he was appointed Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Scientific Research and from March 2006 as Minister in President’s Office in Charge of Science and Technology. In 2007 he was given the responsibility of ICT. He is committed to the expansion and modernisation of the Rwanda education system and the aspiration for knowledge-based, technology-led economy by 2020. He serves on the Board of Directors of Development Gateway Foundation and Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, as Vice President for Africa, TWAS and Advisory Board, Scientists Without Borders.