Candidate Statement: Leo Blitz

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Nominated Office: Vice-President

Affiliation: UC Berkeley

Position/title: Professor of Astronomy

PhD institution: Columbia University (1979)

Areas of scientific interest:
  •     Galactic structure and evolution
  •     molecular clouds
  •     Star formation
  •     Interstellar medium

AAS positions:

  •     Councilor (1995-1998)
  •     Warner/Pierce Prize Committee (2002-2003, chair: 2003)

Other relevant positions and experience:

  • Director, Allen Telescope Array (2006-2008)
  • Director, Radio Astronomy Laboratory, UC Berkeley (1996-2008)
  • Director, Laboratory for Millimeter-Wave Astronomy, University of Maryland (1988-1996)
  • NRC Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics (1994-1997)
  • President, Vice President and Organizing Committee member of IAU Commission 33: Structure and Dynamics of the Galactic System (1982-1994) and various visiting committees, advisory committees, panels, and organization of scientific meetings
  • Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship (1984-1988)

Candidate Statement: Astronomy is changing before our eyes. More than ever it is becoming a field of big science with the advent of Keck, ALMA, TMT, GMT, JWST, LSST, and on the horizon, the Square Kilometer Array. As a result, astronomy is increasingly being done in large teams. Compounding this trend, funding for individual investigator grants is falling, and it is becoming harder and harder for individuals and small groups of investigators to do groundbreaking new science. These trends affect all of the members of the AAS and should therefore be the concern of all. The AAS can and should be a forum for debating these issues and bringing them to the fore. Through town hall gatherings at the semi-annual AAS meetings, the AAS can and should be a forum for developing a consensus of how the membership sees these developments and others. AAS meetings have long provided the glue for our membership in the dissemination of new scientific results, and will continue to do so, but it should also be a venue where large issues that effect the entire membership can be discussed.