Candidate Statement: Tim Bastian

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Nominated Office: At-Large Trustee

Affiliation: National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Position/title: Astronomer

PhD institution: University of Colorado (1987)

Areas of scientific interest:

  • Solar & heliospheric physics - chromosphere, corona, solar wind; energetic processes - flares, CMEs
  • Coronal magnetic fields, magnetic energy release
  • Late-type stars; exoplanets
  • Radiophysics - emission mechanisms, propagation phenomena, data inversion
  • Radio instrumentation - interferometry

AAS positions & dates:

  • AAS Committee on Light Pollution, Radio Interference, and Space Debris (2003 – 2005)
  • Scientific Editor, Astrophysical Journal (2003 – 2007)
  • AAS Publications Board (2013 – 2015)
  • AAS Publications Task Force (2014)
  • AAS Publications Transition Team (2015)
  • AAS Officer: Publications Board Chair (2016 – present)

Other relevant positions and experience:

  • Member, National Academies SSB Committee on Solar and Space Physics (2013 – 2017)
  • Member, panel on Solar and Heliospheric Physics, Decadal Survey of Solar and Space Physics (2001 – 2002)
  • Member, panel on Solar and Heliospheric Physics, Decadal Survey of Solar and Space Physics (2011 – 2012)
  • Member and co-Chair, LWS working group on Ground-based Support of Solar Probe Plus (2014)
  • Chair, National Academies Assessment of the NSF Geospace Portfolio Review (2016)
  • Member, IAU Division E Steering Committee (2018 – present)
  • I have served on numerous SOCs, advisory panels, program committees, and steering committees
  • NRAO: Assistant Director for Science & Academic Affairs (2009 – 2011)
  • NRAO: Assistant Director for Observatory Science Operations (2012 – 2013)
  • NRAO: Assistant Director for Science Support and Research (2013 – 2017)

Candidate Statement:

The AAS is an extraordinary professional organization, one that not only provides comprehensive services to its members, but one that is exercising leadership in ensuring that access, diversity, and inclusion are front and center in its thinking about the wider astronomy and astrophysics enterprise. It has, moreover, been proactive in developing a robust ethics and anti-harassment policy so that its professional gatherings are safe and productive. The AAS has also shown considerable vision in positioning its suite of premier journals for a successful future. It’s been my privilege to have served as Chair of the Publications Committee, participating in the development of a strategic plan and overseeing elements of its implementation. Still, while the AAS has enjoyed real success, it faces ongoing and inter-related challenges — in making the promise of diversity and inclusion a reality, in providing support and tools for its education mission, in bringing its varied membership together for scientific workshops and meetings, in its advocacy for astronomy and astrophysics to government policy makers, and in providing a premier suite of scientific journals to the wider community. I would be honored to serve as a Trustee, changing my focus from AAS Publications to the wider AAS mission and the many challenges that lie ahead.