Word: cfa
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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With roughly 200 scientists, 200 technicians, observers, engineers, and programmers, and 200 administrative support staff members, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) has the potential to be imposing and impersonal...
...within this casual setting, scientists are taking on some serious scientific challenges. The CfA's facilities include labs, machine shops, fully networked VAX and Sun computers, and the 60,000 volume astronomical library...
...CfA facilities also include the Whipple Observatory in Arizona, which houses among other equipment the Multiple Mirror Telescope used for interferometric observations of the stars. The Oak Ridge Observatory in Harvard, Mass., is also part of the CfA and features an 84-foot radio antenna currently being used to search for extraterrestrial intelligence...
...those who work at the center seem to agree that by far the most valuable resource the CfA provides is the people working there. "When you have a question, there's always somebody who's an expert in every field," says Aaron J. Romanowsky, a first year graduate student working on theoretical galactic dynamics...
John Cobuzzi, a technician at the CfA, helps to develop mirros for a NASA X-ray studying telescope. Nestled in a lab filled with imposing rhinoceros-sized equipment designed to measure iridium lenses, Cobuzzi says the best thing about the CfA is "the "people here, the living knowledge...