Director of Arecibo Observatory quits after funding fight

Nature : Robert Kerr stepped down as the operations director of the Arecibo Observatory after he was stripped of his role as its principal investigator. NSF funds two-thirds of the facility’s $12 million annual budget but is pressed to fund telescopes that are newer than the 52-year-old Arecibo. In the face of recommendations that NSF close the facility unless outside funding is found, Arecibo received an offer from Yuri Milner’s Breakthrough Listen, a project to find extraterrestrial intelligence. In a commentary in Scientific American, Kerr criticized NSF for saying it would reduce its support of Arecibo by an equivalent amount. However, NSF astronomy division director Jim Ulvestad says that is not an accurate description of the organization’s position. Kerr says that following his statements in the article, his communications with NSF and with SRI International, the contractor that runs Arecibo, were cut off almost entirely and he was removed from his position as principal investigator, which led him to step down completely.