Honors to Jack Harvey and George Simon
John W. Harvey was presented with the 1995 AURA Science Award by Goetz Oertel in a ceremony at NOAO Headquarters last November. In addition to his worldwide reputation as an innovative instrumentalist, Jack remains fully engaged in the science that these instruments produce--witness his recent lead article on helioseismology in Physics Today, as well as a steady stream of research publications.
In February, George W. Simon was named a Fellow of the US Air Force Phillips Laboratory--the Laboratory's highest award for scientific and engineering achievements. As the Fellows program is new this year, George is among the inaugural group of recipients. He is widely recognized for his work on solar magnetoconvection. In addition to the gold medal and plaque he received at the Fellows awards banquet, George will receive a specialized grant to pursue research beneficial to the Air Force. You can see a nice picture of George and his fellow Fellows on the web at http://www.plk.af.mil/PLhome/PA/RELEASES/96-12.html. Congratulations to both Jack and George (and apologies to Jack for inadvertently omitting his award from the last Newsletter)!
The Sunspot Education and Visitor Center
As you'll read below, a seven-year campaign to bring an education and visitor center to Sunspot has been crowned with success and will be under construction by the time this Newsletter appears. Many people contributed to this multi-agency effort, so I must apologize in advance if I omit someone.
Rex Hunter spearheaded the campaign and will shepherd it through completion. Other NSO/SP contributors, past and present, include Ramona Elrod, Guy Gallaway, Lou Gilliam, Craig Gullixson, Frank Hegwer, Julie Hull, Don Neidig, Robert Rentschler, and Ray Smartt. Don Versluis and Andy Commissaris handled contractual issues for NOAO; Jeff Barr also consulted on the design of the center. Max Goodwin represented the Forest Service, along with Peg Crim, Jose Martinez, Lee Poague, Geri Rivers, and Johnny Wilson. Kurt Anderson represented the NMSU Apache Point Observatory. The International Space Hall of Fame was represented by Don Starkey, Ken Hitchcock and Edson Way; the State of New Mexico Tourism Department by Joseph Gutierrez and Javier Gonzalez; and the Federal Highway Administration by Joseph Edwards. The New Mexico state and federal congressional delegations provided invaluable support; the Honorable Dave Townsend sponsored the original state legislation that got the ball rolling. Congratulations and thanks to everyone who made this possible.
GONG on the Cover of Science!
Don't miss the special issue of Science to appear 31 May 1996: "First Results from GONG," with seven articles in addition to the colorful cover. GONG will also make a splash at the Madison AAS/SPD meeting (9-13 June) with an invited talk by Juri Toomre, a topical session, and the annual GONG meeting following the AAS meeting.
See you in Madison
In addition to the GONG presentations and meeting just mentioned, NSO will contribute to the SPD topical session on "New Solar Instrumentation" organized by Jeff Kuhn, including presentations on SOLIS, CLEAR, and infrared instrumentation, and to the special session on the Stellar Oscillations Network Group (SONG). We'll be contributing to other sessions as well, and looking forward to learning about your latest work.
Update your Bookmarks--New URL for the NSO Web Site
We are gradually trying to improve the utility and user-friendliness of our web site, which is now at http://www.nso.noao.edu. From there you can link to pages for NSO/Kitt Peak, NSO/Sac Peak, NSO/GONG, and NOAO; you can fill out or download an observing time request form; and you can find out more about NSO-wide efforts such as SOLIS (Synoptic Optical Long-term Investigations of the Sun). We hope in the future to start an on-line discussion similar to the AURA electronic forum (at http://www.noao.edu/aura/forum) and to provide easy entry to the nascent NSO digital library (see related item below).
The Summer Students are Rolling In
NSO's summer students this year (and their advisors in parentheses) include: Christopher Allen (Matt Penn), Eric Bell (Frank Hill), David Berger (Larry November and John Varsik), Mark Fagan (Charlie Lindsey) Kathleen Ford (Steve Keil and K. S. Balasubramaniam), Karen Griffith (Christoph Keller), Inese Ivans (Jeff Kuhn), Hina Khan (Thomas Rimmele), Sean Matt (George Simon), Abigail Paske (Bill Livingston), Ann Schiff (Haosheng Lin). Jeremy Tinker (Thomas Rimmele and Louis Strous), and Wayne Winters (Harry Jones). We'll fill you in on their activities in the next Newsletter.
Doug Rabin