SIGNIFICANCE OF THE
HUBBLE FELLOWSHIP
PROGRAM
Christopher F. McKee
March 8, 2010
WHY I TALKED TO RICCARDO
With the launch of Hubble, NASA proposed to send large amounts
of funds to researchers for data analysis
This policy ensured the realization of the scientific promise of
Hubble, but the length of an observing grant was generally too
small to guarantee support for postdocs
Since Hubble was a long-term mission, the best way to maximize its
scientific output would be to train the next generation of researchers
At that time, many postdocs were for only 2 years, and there
were far fewer named postdoctoral fellowships
Existence proof: John Bahcall at the Institute for Advanced Study had
provided generations of (mainly) theorists to develop as scientists in the
postdoctoral program he oversaw
I met Riccardo at a meeting of the fachbeirat of the Max
Planck Institut fuer extraterristrische physik in Munich
I presented the case that an investment in the next
generation of scientists would provide a more lasting
legacy than most of the research done with the telescope
Thanks to Riccardo’s leadership
THE REST IS HISTORY
NASA PRESS RELEASE (April 1990)
______________________________________________________________
NASA HUBBLE FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM WILL MAKE SPACE TELESCOPE
RESEARCH ACCESSIBLE TO TALENTED YOUNG ASTRONOMERS
NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute, in cooperation with
astronomical institutions throughout the United States, has taken a
major initiative toward creating the astronomy leaders of tomorrow
with the inauguration of the Hubble Fellowship Program. The Hubble
Fellowship Program will help ensure that some of the best recent
scientific talent in astronomy and physics will be awarded an
opportunity to conduct important research on challenging discoveries
associated with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) program.
NASA PRESS RELEASE (April 1990)
______________________________________________________________
NASA HUBBLE FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM WILL MAKE SPACE TELESCOPE
RESEARCH ACCESSIBLE TO TALENTED YOUNG ASTRONOMERS
NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute, in cooperation with
astronomical institutions throughout the United States, has taken a
major initiative toward creating the astronomy leaders of tomorrow
with the inauguration of the Hubble Fellowship Program. The Hubble
Fellowship Program will help ensure that some of the best recent
scientific talent in astronomy and physics will be awarded an
opportunity to conduct important research on challenging discoveries
associated with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) program.
The launch of the HST will usher in a new "golden age" for astronomy…. There
will be a tremendous requirement for skilled astronomers to conduct research and
analysis related to NASA's space astrophysics programs of the 1990's,
and beyond.
NASA PRESS RELEASE (April 1990)
______________________________________________________________
NASA HUBBLE FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM WILL MAKE SPACE TELESCOPE
RESEARCH ACCESSIBLE TO TALENTED YOUNG ASTRONOMERS
NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute, in cooperation with
astronomical institutions throughout the United States, has taken a
major initiative toward creating the astronomy leaders of tomorrow
with the inauguration of the Hubble Fellowship Program. The Hubble
Fellowship Program will help ensure that some of the best recent
scientific talent in astronomy and physics will be awarded an
opportunity to conduct important research on challenging discoveries
associated with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) program.
The launch of the HST will usher in a new "golden age" for astronomy…. There
will be a tremendous requirement for skilled astronomers to conduct research and
analysis related to NASA's space astrophysics programs of the 1990's,
and beyond.
The highly qualified post-doctoral scientists selected for this program from
around the world…will also have an opportunity to discuss their research at a
symposium which will be held annually at STScI.
The first 20 years of the Hubble Fellowship program
by the numbers:
Total number of Fellows: 242
Number of women fellows: 62 = 26%
Compare 19% women PhDs in ‘97, 29% in ‘06
Number per year: 7 - 17 (average = 12)
Number declined ~ 2/yr
This has recently increased to ~4-5/yr, possibly due to advent of
five-year fellowships
2009: Spitzer Fellowships folded into Hubble Fellow program
NASA’s investment in the Hubble Fellowship Program
GO/AR funds distributed by STScI: $342 M
Hubble Fellowships: $42 M
12% of all the funds distributed to the community
Where did the Fellows come from?
Caltech 21
Berkeley 18
Princeton 17
Harvard 15
Arizona 14
Santa Cruz 11
Leiden 9
Ohio State 8
Cambridge, Texas 7
ANU, Chicago, Colorado, Yale 6
Columbia, MIT, Washington 5
JHU 4
Cornell, Hawaii, Maryland, Sydney, Toronto, UCSD, Wisconsin 3
Amsterdam, Bonn, Groningen, Massachusetts, McMaster, Minnesota,
Pittsburgh, Rutgers 2
Plus 13 other domestic and 23 other foreign institutions
Where did the Fellows take their fellowships?
Center for Astrophysics 21
Caltech 20
Carnegie (OCIW) 18
Berkeley, Institute for Advanced Study 17
Arizona 14
Princeton 13
Santa Cruz 12
Hawaii, MIT 9
Chicago, JHU, NOAO, Texas 8
Colorado 7
STScI, UCLA 6
Washington 5
Carnegie (DTM), LBNL, Michigan, Wisconsin, Yale 3
Columbia, Minnesota, Stanford, UCSB, Virginia 2
Plus 20 other institutions
Where are the Fellows now? The first year (1990)
P. Artymowicz
U. Toronto
Stefi Baum
Rochester Institute of Technology
Michael Bolte
UCSC; Director, Lick Observatory
Paul Callanan
University College, Cork
Laura Danly
Curator, Griffith Observtory
Andrew Fruchter
STScI
Neal Katz
U. Massachusetts
Young-Wook Lee
Yonsei U.
Peter Lundqvist
Stockholm U.
Mario Mateo
U. Michigan
Charles Steidel
Caltech
Rene Walterbos
New Mexico State U.
Qingde Wang
U. Massachusetts
Janet Wood
?
Brian Yanny
Fermi Lab
Where are the Fellows now? Institutions with multiple
Fellows from the classes of 1990-2000:
5 Fellows: Arizona, STScI
4 Fellows: Columbia
3 Fellows: Center for Astrophysics, Florida, Gemini, Leiden,
Massachusetts, UC Santa Cruz*, U. Washington
* + 3 Fellows hired as asst profs since
2 Fellows: Caltech, Carnegie Observatories, Case Western, ETH
Zurich, Groningen, Harvard, Maryland, Michigan State, NOAO, Ohio
State, Toronto, UCLA, Wisconsin, Yonsei Korea
Fellows have won many prizes:
Cannon: Kaspi 98, Barger 01, Kewley 06, Greene 08,
Soderberg 09
Pierce: Ghez 98, Zaritsky 99, Sembach 01, Barger 02,
Gaensler 06, Kewley 08, Treu 10
Warner: Steidel 97, Zaldiarraga 03, Reynolds 05, Gaudi 09
National Academy of Sciences: A. Ghez, C. Steidel
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE HUBBLE FELLOW PROGRAM
1. Quality: The Gold Standard
Within the MPG (and within Europe) the Hubble Fellowship is
considered the 'gold standard' of fellowships; Spitzer,
Chandra (Einstein, Sagan)never touched that and, sadly,
neither did Miller, Bok etc. fellowships.
Hans-Walter Rix ‘91
They have created the best astrophysics fellowship program in the
world by putting science ahead of programmatics (and, of course,
with such a high quality program, the programmatics take care of
themselves!)... and their unwavering dedication to quality ensures
that the "brand" never loses its status.
Chris Reynolds ‘98
2. Opportunity for growth and independence
So it was a huge deal for me to be able to land one of these - my
personality and style are such that I don't think I could ever work
under someone else's close supervision, and the Fellowship gave
me the freedom to pursue my own interests at my own pace. This
allowed me to change fields (into neutron stars and X-ray
astronomy)….. Without this opportunity, I probably would be still
working on the same things I started with, which has always been
my deepest & darkest fear!
Bryan Gaensler ‘98
The Hubble fellowship came at a crucial time for me as it allowed
me the freedom to choose my host institution in a way that provided
continuity in my research. The independence, and responsibility,
that came with the research budget allowed me to develop
international collaborations that would have been difficult to sustain
without some other form of financial support.
Pat McCarthy ‘91
2. Opportunity for growth and independence--cont’d
To me, being a Hubble Fellow all those years ago was invaluable as
someone who studied our solar system because way back in 1994 the
solar system was not cool….When I went off to Arizona and then to
Caltech I felt as if it were often hard to get the other astronomers to take
me (and my talks, and my proposals) very seriously until they learned
that I was a Hubble Fellow. "OH!" they would say, while suddenly
deciding that I was perhaps doing something interesting after all.
Mike Brown ‘94
3. The breadth of the Hubble Fellowship Program
I also think that it's fantastic that the program takes such a broad
view,supporting theorists like Todd Thompson, Mark (Krumholz), and
Andrey Kravtsov and observers with backgrounds at different
wavelength regimes rather than focusing sharply on direct
exploitation of the NASA observatories. From a personal perspective
on this front, I think there's still huge headway to be made leveraging
the huge amount of multiwavelength data we have on nearby
galaxies and I'm glad that there's a program that supports this kind of
synthetic research. I'm especially convinced after seeing the
incoming Herschel maps (we finally have far-IR maps matched to
our UV, mm,near-IR, and optical data) and with the EVLA (which is
beautifully matched in resolution to HST) firing up this month.
Adam Leroy ‘09
4. Recognition afforded by the Fellowship
For me the Hubble Fellowship felt a little like getting a seat at the
grown-ups table. When you're a grad student, no matter how good
you are, it's extremely hard to get noticed. You don't get invited to
give colloquia, you don't generally get a chance to talk at
conferences, and your papers get cited much less because no one
knows who you are. What recognition you do get is largely
dependent on your advisor advertising your work….I think the most
important part of the Hubble Fellowship for me was that it provided
an opportunity to have my work seen and evaluated widely, and to
do so on my own rather than as an adjunct to a larger project
associated with a more senior person.
Mark Krumholz ‘05
5. Fringe benefits
-The colleagues:
A side benefit that I would not have anticipated, but turned out to be
important, was that it immediately expanded my circle of
professional colleagues. Even if though we did not necessarily start
new collaborations, the Hubble Fellows of the first few years were a
sort of a club. Even 20 years later, membership in that "club" is
sometimes the basis for contact and doing astro business.
Mike Bolte ‘90
-Portability helps solve two-body problems:
In the fall of 1988, a year before I finished my PhD, my wife started
as a graduate student in the Molecular Biology department at
Princeton. I was therefore keen to stay (ideally) in or near Princeton
for as much of my wife's PhD stint as possible. The Hubble
Fellowship allowed me to do just that.
Raja Guhathakurta ‘92
5. Fringe benefits--cont’d
-The Symposium:
I think one of the real assets of having this fellowship was the
independence it afforded and the opportunity to meet an
amazing set of peers in fields outside your own through the
Hubble symposium.
Andrea Ghez ‘92
For me, the biggest direct impact of being a Hubble Fellow was the
people I got to know through the program….The dinners at the
Hubble Symposium meetings (where each of us gave a short talk)
were absolutely great. I remember one time….in which in the middle
of a heated argument, Matias Zaldarriaga bet--*against* all his own
publications--that there would be no second peak in the CMB
angular power spectrum. Years later, he lost this bet (handily) to
Greg Bryan; he owes Greg an airline ticket to Buenos Aires, if I
remember correctly.
David Hogg ‘97
6. Broader impacts: Domestic
-Improving the quality of postdoctoral programs in astrophysics
As for the community, the Hubble Fellowship program educated the
community that free-reign fellowship postdocs are exceedingly
productive and valuable; in the wake of the HF program there are
dozens of excellent, no-duties postdoc opportunities and they lead to
some of the field's best work (our group at NYU runs on this!).
David Hogg ‘97
-Benefits to the host institution
My home institution has benefited significantly from the Hubble
Fellowship program. We have attracted a fellow in nearly every year
of the program and some of our most successful alumni were here
as Hubble Fellows. They have helped raise the level of our own
institutional fellowship both by putting pressure on the salary scale
(which is good for recruiting) and by making for a larger and more
diverse intellectual environment. This has happened at institutions
across the US.
Pat McCarthy ‘91
6. Broader impacts: Domestic--cont’d
-Spreading the wealth:
excellent candidates can go to the institution that is best for them,
and not just to one of the small number of places with endowed
fellowships
Scott Tremaine -
7. Broader impacts: International
But the Hubble Fellowships have served as a fantastic conduit to
bring some of the world's best young astronomers to the USA,
and to let them establish themselves at the top universities in
country. American astronomy has benefited greatly from all the
foreign astronomers who have flowed into the system (and
sometimes stayed long term) through the Hubble Fellowship
programme.
Bryan Gaensler ‘98
(One of the particular strengths of the program is) the steady flux of
first-rate non-U.S. astronomers that it brings into the country---not
only because of the research they do here but also because many
of them stay, and those that don't return to their home countries
with a much better understanding and appreciation of the U.S.
Scott Tremaine -
Room for Improvement?
-Does the current allocation system strike the best balance between
ensuring institutional diversity and allowing the best people to go to the
best places for their research? (P. McCarthy ‘91)
-Is the stipend growing too rapidly?
I think there is no doubt that the Hubble started an "arms race" of
prize fellowships, raising the bar for everyone. (D. Finkbeiner ‘00)
…the Hubble Fellowship stipend has been ratcheted up over the
years without much regard to the competition, and everyone else
has to try to keep up. This has made postdocs in astrophysics
significantly more expensive than (I think) almost any other science
discipline. (S. Tremaine)
-Should the term of the Fellowship be extended beyond 3 years?
CONCLUSIONS
* The Hubble Fellowship Program is arguably the best
fellowship program in the physical sciences in terms of the
number of outstanding recipients and the recognition they
have received
* The success of the program is due in large part to:
-selection of the fellows on the basis of quality, not
for programmatic reasons
-freedom and resources the fellows have to choose
their own research
* The Hubble Fellowship program has inspired the creation
of a number of other named fellowships that benefit the field
THANKS TO
Riccardo Giacconi for initiating the program
Nino Panagia, Howard Bond, Michael Fall, and
Ron Allen for overseeing it
And NASA for funding it
May today’s Fellows be as successful as those in the past
And may the Hubble Fellowship Program
flourish for another 20 years!