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Federal Funding of Astronomical Research (2000) / Chapter Skim
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2. Back to the Past: An Update on the 1991 Decadal Report
Pages 6-13

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From page 6...
... Women made up 8, 12, 13, and 16 percent of the astronomical community in 1973, 1987, 1990, anti 1995, respectively, as measured by the fraction of AAS membership. This trend has followed increasing enrollment by women in graduate programs as tracked by the American Institute of Physics (AIP)
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From page 7...
... Has the balance of federal funding changed significantly? The comm ittee found that -- i'- - ~ ^^' ^ ~ ~ ~^ ~ r I' acknowledged NASA support, but only 24 percent acknowledged NSF.
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From page 8...
... It makes clear that NASA dominates the total funding for astronomical research, as it has since at least 1981. This is due, of course, to the large amount of NASA funding going into space astronomy projects such as the HST; the Advanced X-ray Astronomy Facility (AXAF)
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From page 9...
... Funding levels for astrophysics programs from the Physics Division were not inclucled in the 1982 Decadal Report (National Research Council, Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 1980 's, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 19821. Inclusion of these programs would have resulted in astronomy and astrophysics support that was higher than that shown in Figures 2.2 and 2.3.
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From page 10...
... Since 1990, the average grant size appears to have stabilized. The 1991 Deca(lal Report made the further observation that the size of the average grant haci dropped below the critical size required for support of a faculty summer salary plus a graduate student and travel.
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From page 11...
... university observatory support from NSF remained flat; thus, the fraction of research grant funding supported by NSF continued to decrease during the 1990s. In a span of about 15 years, support for the field of astronomy made a major (and largely unplanned)
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From page 12...
... Examples of large astronomical scientific programs are the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) , the HST Key Projects on quasar absorption lines and the extragalactic distance scale, and the Two-Micron AllSky Survey (2MASS)
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From page 13...
... What is the nature of the "dark matter" and "dark energy," if any really exists? A complete theory of star formation still eludes our grasp and, with it, both a complete theory of galaxy formation and a complete theory for the formation of large-scale structures in the universe, although significant strides have been made in showing that gravitational instability is the dominant process.
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Key Terms

  • astronomical research
  • grant funding
  • percent acknowledged
  • american astronomical
  • grant size

  • astronomical society
  • average grant
  • nasa funding
  • space astronomy
  • acknowledged nasa

  • report stated
  • infrared astronomy
  • updated version
  • nsf research
  • observational optical

  • physics division
  • report documented
  • nsf funding
  • laser interferometer
  • acknowledged nsf

  • cosmological distances
  • dropped below
  • guest investigator
  • astronomy increased
  • funding denoted

  • research grant
  • astronomy projects
  • steady decline
  • southern observatory
  • guide stars


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