KIPAC Director Roger Blandford to chair National Academy decadal survey

Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology Director Roger Blandford will chair the next National Academy of Sciences decadal survey of astronomy and astrophysics, Astro2010.

“I am honored to be asked to take on this task but daunted by the challenge to live up to the accomplishment of my distinguished predecessors,” Blandford said.

Astro2010 is the next in a series of surveys that are produced every 10 years by the National Research Council of The National Academy of Sciences. The survey will assess the field of space- and ground-based astronomy and astrophysics, and recommend priorities for the most important scientific and technical activities of the decade 2010-2020. The Astro2010 report will be addressed to agencies that support research in the field, the congressional committees with jurisdiction over those agencies, and the scientific community.

Members of the astronomy and astrophysics community are encouraged to suggest possible candidates for the survey committee and panels. They can then meet the survey committee at a special session scheduled for the January 2009 American Astronomical Society meeting .

“My colleagues and I will try our hardest to make the survey process as open, inclusive and fair as we can,” said Blandford. “At a time when the gap between aspiration and funding has grown enormously, we will need all the support we can get from the research community for the tough choices that will have to be taken.”