152
Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, in which I wrote of the Gran
Telescopio Canarias and Roque de los Muchachos Observatory as a home for
the largest telescopes. At the 2008 ASTRONET meetings, I discussed strategic plans for European astronomy and the outstanding contribution of astrophysics in Spain. At last we were on the map and could participate on an equal
footing in the formulation of future science policy.
Research attains excellence when it adds to our scientific knowledge, otherwise it cannot properly be called research. The question is, how to make a
research institute a centre of excellence. It is a never-ending and far from
straightforward task, demanding a constantly critical attitude, staying permanently on one’s guard, continuous examination of what is being done, and
implementing corrective actions so as not to lose tone or rhythm. And this
state of tension must be maintained at all times. There are numerous examples
of what I mean in the minutes of the IAC’s Management Committee meetings. I have found notes in my handwriting with ideas for improving the
quality of our research that were written during various sleepless nights over
the years. My last nocturnal vigil was in 2011.
But to go back a little in time, it was in the eighties, once we were certain
that the most advanced telescopes would find their way to our observatories
and the IAC was legally established, that we could focus more on the challenge of the internal organization of our research efforts, always with the aim
of achieving excellence with the support of our great observing capacity.
It is not enough to have a clear idea of where one wants to get to; strategies
must be devised that take into account one’s strengths and weaknesses. We
were aware that our main weakness was ignorance; after all, we were new
arrivals in astrophysics. But our main strength was the Canarian Observatories.
We needed to keep this in mind always since we depended on them in order
to do competitive research.
In the autumn of 1983, only a year after having achieved the Astrophysics
Law, we invited a group of renowned foreign astrophysicists with experience
in heading research teams. This working group was formed by twelve foreign
and four IAC researchers. Those of us representing the IAC were given the
mission of keeping the discussion on track to ensure that the counsels offered,
given the IAC’s circumstances, were realistic and practicable.
We specifically asked them for a ‘pragmatic and practicable document that
would enable the directorate of the IAC to set in motion a well-founded programme of research of genuine interest’. Before they arrived in the Canaries,
we had sent them clear and detailed information on how we had got to this
point, what the IAC was legally and structurally, and what was currently being
done in research and other areas of activity. They spent the first days visiting
F. Sánchez
Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy, in which I wrote of the Gran
Telescopio Canarias and Roque de los Muchachos Observatory as a home for
the largest telescopes. At the 2008 ASTRONET meetings, I discussed strategic plans for European astronomy and the outstanding contribution of astrophysics in Spain. At last we were on the map and could participate on an equal
footing in the formulation of future science policy.
Research attains excellence when it adds to our scientific knowledge, otherwise it cannot properly be called research. The question is, how to make a
research institute a centre of excellence. It is a never-ending and far from
straightforward task, demanding a constantly critical attitude, staying permanently on one’s guard, continuous examination of what is being done, and
implementing corrective actions so as not to lose tone or rhythm. And this
state of tension must be maintained at all times. There are numerous examples
of what I mean in the minutes of the IAC’s Management Committee meetings. I have found notes in my handwriting with ideas for improving the
quality of our research that were written during various sleepless nights over
the years. My last nocturnal vigil was in 2011.
But to go back a little in time, it was in the eighties, once we were certain
that the most advanced telescopes would find their way to our observatories
and the IAC was legally established, that we could focus more on the challenge of the internal organization of our research efforts, always with the aim
of achieving excellence with the support of our great observing capacity.
It is not enough to have a clear idea of where one wants to get to; strategies
must be devised that take into account one’s strengths and weaknesses. We
were aware that our main weakness was ignorance; after all, we were new
arrivals in astrophysics. But our main strength was the Canarian Observatories.
We needed to keep this in mind always since we depended on them in order
to do competitive research.
In the autumn of 1983, only a year after having achieved the Astrophysics
Law, we invited a group of renowned foreign astrophysicists with experience
in heading research teams. This working group was formed by twelve foreign
and four IAC researchers. Those of us representing the IAC were given the
mission of keeping the discussion on track to ensure that the counsels offered,
given the IAC’s circumstances, were realistic and practicable.
We specifically asked them for a ‘pragmatic and practicable document that
would enable the directorate of the IAC to set in motion a well-founded programme of research of genuine interest’. Before they arrived in the Canaries,
we had sent them clear and detailed information on how we had got to this
point, what the IAC was legally and structurally, and what was currently being
done in research and other areas of activity. They spent the first days visiting
F. Sánchez