Unified Astronomy Thesaurus Seeks New Steering Committee Members
Julie Steffen American Astronomical Society (AAS)
The Unified Astronomy Thesaurus (UAT) is an open, interoperable, and community-supported project which formalizes astronomical concepts and their inter-relationships into a high quality, freely available open resource. The UAT has been implemented by the journals of the American Astronomical Society, the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the International Virtual Observatory Alliance, the proposal system for the Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope, and WikiData.
Currently, the UAT Steering Committee (SC) is seeking new members. We welcome expressions of interest from astronomers, researchers, librarians, data and archive scientists, and others. We especially welcome nominees with a specific interest in adding international, in particular Southern Hemisphere, representation.
The commitment is a two-year term (February 2022-February 2024) and includes monthly SC meetings. Please contact the current Chair of the UAT SC Jenny Novacescu, with “UAT Steering Committee” in the subject line, to express your interest or to ask any questions.
If you are unable to commit to a full two-year appointment, but wish to suggest new terms, changes to existing terms, or other revisions to the current version of the UAT, we welcome you to contribute feedback. Your feedback and contributions help the Steering Committee continuously improve the Unified Astronomy Thesaurus for the worldwide community.
The Steering Committee is overseen by the AAS Publications Committee and sets the general parameters for the overall direction of the UAT. It is comprised of representatives from groups with a direct stake in the development and success of the Unified Astronomy Thesaurus. Members of the SC also serve as representatives of the UAT, promoting it to the global astronomy, astrophysics, library, and publishing communities, developing test cases, and increasing its overall use. More information about the Steering Committee is available online.