144
The definitive step in obtaining the longed-for juridico–administrative consolidation of the IAC was taken with the re-creation of the Instituto de
Astrofísica de Canarias by a royal decree–law in 1982. The newborn IAC was
answerable to the Ministry of the Presidency of the Government, the Minister
of which chaired the IAC’s Governing Council. This law endowed the IAC
with the capacities and self-management necessary for us to carry out our tasks
of administering the internationalized Observatories of the Canary Islands,
doing research, developing and transferring technology, training researchers
and technologists, doing science outreach, and promoting the environment. To
fulfil these functions, we thought out and designed a simple and efficient organization to be set in motion immediately. All of this constitutes the Instituto de
Astrofísica de Canarias of today. With this agreement we advanced another step
in our strategy of consolidating our nascent Institute and setting it on a formal
basis. Our aim was to become an entity capable of managing the Canarian
Observatories and all the activity on the islands in this branch of science.
The eighties covered what we might call the third stage of this great project,
which was the juridico–administrative consolidation phase of the IAC in
1982 and its introduction to society through the widely publicized inaugurations of 1985. This stage marked the IAC’s scientific, technological, educational, and cultural consolidation. The initial goals culminated with this stage.
It was then that I saw that I could, and should, focus all my efforts on directing the IAC; I left my teaching at the University and, even though I could
have combined my chair with my directorial obligations to the IAC, I resigned
my professorship. I also gave up research and disbanded my research team so
that personal obligations should not get in the way of my duties as Director.
To recapitulate, the final years of the seventies and the early years of the
eighties were a period of frenetic activity. We were fighting to ensure the
arrival of telescopes without colonialist strings attached. But we were also
training astrophysicists and initiating the teaching of astrophysics at Spanish
universities. As if that were not enough, the chancellorship of the University
of La Laguna fell to me at a particularly turbulent moment. We immediately
tackled the up-hill task of legally formalizing the IAC. As a grand finale, we
organized the inaugurations of 1985. At the same time, we had to obtain
resources for the day-to-day and future running of the IAC. It was a period of
great toil and many complications but an exciting one.
I shall now describe how the IAC found a physical home. In the middle of
the last century, when a graduate from a poor family began to work and got
married, he had to find accommodation in a small, often dingy, apartment. As
he slowly climbed the career ladder and his status improved, the family would
then move to better accommodation. Finally, if all had gone well, he would
F. Sánchez
The definitive step in obtaining the longed-for juridico–administrative consolidation of the IAC was taken with the re-creation of the Instituto de
Astrofísica de Canarias by a royal decree–law in 1982. The newborn IAC was
answerable to the Ministry of the Presidency of the Government, the Minister
of which chaired the IAC’s Governing Council. This law endowed the IAC
with the capacities and self-management necessary for us to carry out our tasks
of administering the internationalized Observatories of the Canary Islands,
doing research, developing and transferring technology, training researchers
and technologists, doing science outreach, and promoting the environment. To
fulfil these functions, we thought out and designed a simple and efficient organization to be set in motion immediately. All of this constitutes the Instituto de
Astrofísica de Canarias of today. With this agreement we advanced another step
in our strategy of consolidating our nascent Institute and setting it on a formal
basis. Our aim was to become an entity capable of managing the Canarian
Observatories and all the activity on the islands in this branch of science.
The eighties covered what we might call the third stage of this great project,
which was the juridico–administrative consolidation phase of the IAC in
1982 and its introduction to society through the widely publicized inaugurations of 1985. This stage marked the IAC’s scientific, technological, educational, and cultural consolidation. The initial goals culminated with this stage.
It was then that I saw that I could, and should, focus all my efforts on directing the IAC; I left my teaching at the University and, even though I could
have combined my chair with my directorial obligations to the IAC, I resigned
my professorship. I also gave up research and disbanded my research team so
that personal obligations should not get in the way of my duties as Director.
To recapitulate, the final years of the seventies and the early years of the
eighties were a period of frenetic activity. We were fighting to ensure the
arrival of telescopes without colonialist strings attached. But we were also
training astrophysicists and initiating the teaching of astrophysics at Spanish
universities. As if that were not enough, the chancellorship of the University
of La Laguna fell to me at a particularly turbulent moment. We immediately
tackled the up-hill task of legally formalizing the IAC. As a grand finale, we
organized the inaugurations of 1985. At the same time, we had to obtain
resources for the day-to-day and future running of the IAC. It was a period of
great toil and many complications but an exciting one.
I shall now describe how the IAC found a physical home. In the middle of
the last century, when a graduate from a poor family began to work and got
married, he had to find accommodation in a small, often dingy, apartment. As
he slowly climbed the career ladder and his status improved, the family would
then move to better accommodation. Finally, if all had gone well, he would
F. Sánchez