1. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE HUBBLE FELLOWSHIP Christopher F. McKee March 8, 2010 PROGRAM

2. WHY I TALKED TO RICCARDO With the launch of Hubble, NASA proposed to send large amounts of funds to researchers for data analysis This policy ensured the realization of the scientific promise of Hubble, but the length of an observing grant was generally too small to guarantee support for postdocs Since Hubble was a long-term mission, the best way to maximize its scientific output would be to train the next generation of researchers At that time, many postdocs were for only 2 years, and there were far fewer named postdoctoral fellowships Existence proof: John Bahcall at the Institute for Advanced Study had provided generations of (mainly) theorists to develop as scientists in the postdoctoral program he oversaw

3. I met Riccardo at a meeting of the fachbeirat of the Max Planck Institut fuer extraterristrische physik in Munich I presented the case that an investment in the next generation of scientists would provide a more lasting legacy than most of the research done with the telescope Thanks to Riccardo’s leadership THE REST IS HISTORY

4. NASA PRESS RELEASE (April 1990) ______________________________________________________________ NASA HUBBLE FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM WILL MAKE SPACE TELESCOPE RESEARCH ACCESSIBLE TO TALENTED YOUNG ASTRONOMERS NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute, in cooperation with astronomical institutions throughout the United States, has taken a major initiative toward creating the astronomy leaders of tomorrow with the inauguration of the Hubble Fellowship Program. The Hubble Fellowship Program will help ensure that some of the best recent scientific talent in astronomy and physics will be awarded an opportunity to conduct important research on challenging discoveries associated with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) program.

5. NASA PRESS RELEASE (April 1990) ______________________________________________________________ NASA HUBBLE FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM WILL MAKE SPACE TELESCOPE RESEARCH ACCESSIBLE TO TALENTED YOUNG ASTRONOMERS NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute, in cooperation with astronomical institutions throughout the United States, has taken a major initiative toward creating the astronomy leaders of tomorrow with the inauguration of the Hubble Fellowship Program. The Hubble Fellowship Program will help ensure that some of the best recent scientific talent in astronomy and physics will be awarded an opportunity to conduct important research on challenging discoveries associated with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) program. The launch of the HST will usher in a new "golden age" for astronomy…. There will be a tremendous requirement for skilled astronomers to conduct research and analysis related to NASA's space astrophysics programs of the 1990's, and beyond.

6. NASA PRESS RELEASE (April 1990) ______________________________________________________________ NASA HUBBLE FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM WILL MAKE SPACE TELESCOPE RESEARCH ACCESSIBLE TO TALENTED YOUNG ASTRONOMERS NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute, in cooperation with astronomical institutions throughout the United States, has taken a major initiative toward creating the astronomy leaders of tomorrow with the inauguration of the Hubble Fellowship Program. The Hubble Fellowship Program will help ensure that some of the best recent scientific talent in astronomy and physics will be awarded an opportunity to conduct important research on challenging discoveries associated with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) program. The launch of the HST will usher in a new "golden age" for astronomy…. There will be a tremendous requirement for skilled astronomers to conduct research and analysis related to NASA's space astrophysics programs of the 1990's, and beyond. The highly qualified post-doctoral scientists selected for this program from around the world…will also have an opportunity to discuss their research at a symposium which will be held annually at STScI.

7. The first 20 years of the Hubble Fellowship program by the numbers: Total number of Fellows: 242 Number of women fellows: 62 = 26% Number per year: 7 - 17 (average = 12) Number declined ~ 2/yr This has recently increased to ~4-5/yr, possibly due to advent of five-year fellowships 2009: Spitzer Fellowships folded into Hubble Fellow program Compare 19% women PhDs in ‘97, 29% in ‘06

8. NASA’s investment in the Hubble Fellowship Program GO/AR funds distributed by STScI: $342 M Hubble Fellowships: $42 M 12% of all the funds distributed to the community

9. Where did the Fellows come from? Caltech 21 Berkeley 18 Princeton 17 Harvard 15 Arizona 14 Santa Cruz 11 Leiden 9 Ohio State 8 Cambridge, Texas 7 ANU, Chicago, Colorado, Yale 6 Columbia, MIT, Washington 5 JHU 4 Cornell, Hawaii, Maryland, Sydney, Toronto, UCSD, Wisconsin 3 Amsterdam, Bonn, Groningen, Massachusetts, McMaster, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Rutgers 2 Plus 13 other domestic and 23 other foreign institutions

10. Where did the Fellows take their fellowships? Center for Astrophysics 21 Caltech 20 Carnegie (OCIW) 18 Berkeley, Institute for Advanced Study 17 Arizona 14 Princeton 13 Santa Cruz 12 Hawaii, MIT 9 Chicago, JHU, NOAO, Texas 8 Colorado 7 STScI, UCLA 6 Washington 5 Carnegie (DTM), LBNL, Michigan, Wisconsin, Yale 3 Columbia, Minnesota, Stanford, UCSB, Virginia 2 Plus 20 other institutions

11. Where are the Fellows now? The first year (1990) P. ArtymowiczU. Toronto Stefi BaumRochester Institute of Technology Michael BolteUCSC; Director, Lick Observatory Paul CallananUniversity College, Cork Laura DanlyCurator, Griffith Observtory Andrew FruchterSTScI Neal KatzU. Massachusetts Young-Wook LeeYonsei U. Peter LundqvistStockholm U. Mario MateoU. Michigan Charles SteidelCaltech Rene WalterbosNew Mexico State U. Qingde WangU. Massachusetts Janet Wood? Brian YannyFermi Lab

12. Where are the Fellows now? Institutions with multiple Fellows from the classes of 1990-2000: 5 Fellows: Arizona, STScI 4 Fellows: Columbia 2 Fellows: Caltech, Carnegie Observatories, Case Western, ETH Zurich, Groningen, Harvard, Maryland, Michigan State, NOAO, Ohio State, Toronto, UCLA, Wisconsin, Yonsei Korea 3 Fellows: Center for Astrophysics, Florida, Gemini, Leiden, Massachusetts, UC Santa Cruz*, U. Washington * + 3 Fellows hired as asst profs since

13. Fellows have won many prizes: Cannon : Kaspi 98, Barger 01, Kewley 06, Greene 08, Soderberg 09 Pierce : Ghez 98, Zaritsky 99, Sembach 01, Barger 02, Gaensler 06, Kewley 08, Treu 10 Warner : Steidel 97, Zaldiarraga 03, Reynolds 05, Gaudi 09 National Academy of Sciences : A. Ghez, C. Steidel

14. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE HUBBLE FELLOW PROGRAM 1. Quality: The Gold Standard Within the MPG (and within Europe) the Hubble Fellowship is considered the 'gold standard' of fellowships; Spitzer, Chandra (Einstein, Sagan)never touched that and, sadly, neither did Miller, Bok etc. fellowships. Hans-Walter Rix ‘91 They have created the best astrophysics fellowship program in the world by putting science ahead of programmatics (and, of course, with such a high quality program, the programmatics take care of themselves!)... and their unwavering dedication to quality ensures that the "brand" never loses its status. Chris Reynolds ‘98

15. 2. Opportunity for growth and independence So it was a huge deal for me to be able to land one of these - my personality and style are such that I don't think I could ever work under someone else's close supervision, and the Fellowship gave me the freedom to pursue my own interests at my own pace. This allowed me to change fields (into neutron stars and X-ray astronomy)….. Without this opportunity, I probably would be still working on the same things I started with, which has always been my deepest & darkest fear! Bryan Gaensler ‘98 The Hubble fellowship came at a crucial time for me as it allowed me the freedom to choose my host institution in a way that provided continuity in my research. The independence, and responsibility, that came with the research budget allowed me to develop international collaborations that would have been difficult to sustain without some other form of financial support. Pat McCarthy ‘91

16. 2. Opportunity for growth and independence--cont’d To me, being a Hubble Fellow all those years ago was invaluable as someone who studied our solar system because way back in 1994 the solar system was not cool….When I went off to Arizona and then to Caltech I felt as if it were often hard to get the other astronomers to take me (and my talks, and my proposals) very seriously until they learned that I was a Hubble Fellow. "OH!" they would say, while suddenly deciding that I was perhaps doing something interesting after all. Mike Brown ‘94

17. 3. The breadth of the Hubble Fellowship Program I also think that it's fantastic that the program takes such a broad view,supporting theorists like Todd Thompson, Mark (Krumholz), and Andrey Kravtsov and observers with backgrounds at different wavelength regimes rather than focusing sharply on direct exploitation of the NASA observatories. From a personal perspective on this front, I think there's still huge headway to be made leveraging the huge amount of multiwavelength data we have on nearby galaxies and I'm glad that there's a program that supports this kind of synthetic research. I'm especially convinced after seeing the incoming Herschel maps (we finally have far-IR maps matched to our UV, mm,near-IR, and optical data) and with the EVLA (which is beautifully matched in resolution to HST) firing up this month. Adam Leroy ‘09

18. 4. Recognition afforded by the Fellowship For me the Hubble Fellowship felt a little like getting a seat at the grown-ups table. When you're a grad student, no matter how good you are, it's extremely hard to get noticed. You don't get invited to give colloquia, you don't generally get a chance to talk at conferences, and your papers get cited much less because no one knows who you are. What recognition you do get is largely dependent on your advisor advertising your work….I think the most important part of the Hubble Fellowship for me was that it provided an opportunity to have my work seen and evaluated widely, and to do so on my own rather than as an adjunct to a larger project associated with a more senior person. Mark Krumholz ‘05

19. 5. Fringe benefits -The colleagues: A side benefit that I would not have anticipated, but turned out to be important, was that it immediately expanded my circle of professional colleagues. Even if though we did not necessarily start new collaborations, the Hubble Fellows of the first few years were a sort of a club. Even 20 years later, membership in that "club" is sometimes the basis for contact and doing astro business. Mike Bolte ‘90 -Portability helps solve two-body problems: In the fall of 1988, a year before I finished my PhD, my wife started as a graduate student in the Molecular Biology department at Princeton. I was therefore keen to stay (ideally) in or near Princeton for as much of my wife's PhD stint as possible. The Hubble Fellowship allowed me to do just that. Raja Guhathakurta ‘92

20. 5. Fringe benefits--cont’d -The Symposium: I think one of the real assets of having this fellowship was the independence it afforded and the opportunity to meet an amazing set of peers in fields outside your own through the Hubble symposium. Andrea Ghez ‘92 For me, the biggest direct impact of being a Hubble Fellow was the people I got to know through the program….The dinners at the Hubble Symposium meetings (where each of us gave a short talk) were absolutely great. I remember one time….in which in the middle of a heated argument, Matias Zaldarriaga bet--*against* all his own publications--that there would be no second peak in the CMB angular power spectrum. Years later, he lost this bet (handily) to Greg Bryan; he owes Greg an airline ticket to Buenos Aires, if I remember correctly. David Hogg ‘97

21. 6. Broader impacts: Domestic -Improving the quality of postdoctoral programs in astrophysics As for the community, the Hubble Fellowship program educated the community that free-reign fellowship postdocs are exceedingly productive and valuable; in the wake of the HF program there are dozens of excellent, no-duties postdoc opportunities and they lead to some of the field's best work (our group at NYU runs on this!). David Hogg ‘97 -Benefits to the host institution My home institution has benefited significantly from the Hubble Fellowship program. We have attracted a fellow in nearly every year of the program and some of our most successful alumni were here as Hubble Fellows. They have helped raise the level of our own institutional fellowship both by putting pressure on the salary scale (which is good for recruiting) and by making for a larger and more diverse intellectual environment. This has happened at institutions across the US. Pat McCarthy ‘91

22. 6. Broader impacts: Domestic--cont’d -Spreading the wealth: excellent candidates can go to the institution that is best for them, and not just to one of the small number of places with endowed fellowships Scott Tremaine -

23. 7. Broader impacts: International But the Hubble Fellowships have served as a fantastic conduit to bring some of the world's best young astronomers to the USA, and to let them establish themselves at the top universities in country. American astronomy has benefited greatly from all the foreign astronomers who have flowed into the system (and sometimes stayed long term) through the Hubble Fellowship programme. Bryan Gaensler ‘98 (One of the particular strengths of the program is) the steady flux of first-rate non-U.S. astronomers that it brings into the country---not only because of the research they do here but also because many of them stay, and those that don't return to their home countries with a much better understanding and appreciation of the U.S. Scott Tremaine -

24. Room for Improvement? -Does the current allocation system strike the best balance between ensuring institutional diversity and allowing the best people to go to the best places for their research? (P. McCarthy ‘91) -Is the stipend growing too rapidly? I think there is no doubt that the Hubble started an "arms race" of prize fellowships, raising the bar for everyone. (D. Finkbeiner ‘00) …the Hubble Fellowship stipend has been ratcheted up over the years without much regard to the competition, and everyone else has to try to keep up. This has made postdocs in astrophysics significantly more expensive than (I think) almost any other science discipline. (S. Tremaine) -Should the term of the Fellowship be extended beyond 3 years?

25. CONCLUSIONS * The Hubble Fellowship Program is arguably the best fellowship program in the physical sciences in terms of the number of outstanding recipients and the recognition they have received * The Hubble Fellowship program has inspired the creation of a number of other named fellowships that benefit the field * The success of the program is due in large part to: -selection of the fellows on the basis of quality, not for programmatic reasons -freedom and resources the fellows have to choose their own research

26. THANKS TO Riccardo Giacconi for initiating the program Nino Panagia, Howard Bond, Michael Fall, and Ron Allen for overseeing it And NASA for funding it May today’s Fellows be as successful as those in the past And may the Hubble Fellowship Program flourish for another 20 years!