262
astronomy and returned purged of all inferiority complexes and ready to do
research here.
One of our earliest successes in following this path in 1975 was to pioneer
a ‘national plan for the training of astrophysicists’. National plans were all the
rage at the time. It was a huge triumph, for a good many of the first outstanding researchers and university lecturers in this branch of science began their
training and acquired their skills as grant holders under this national plan.
We could see that, even though the large observing instruments had to be
concentrated in a few select sites, the actual astrophysical research needed to
be spread throughout the country. It was becoming daily less necessary to be
standing under a telescope to do science; it was important to encourage and
promote the creation of astrophysical research teams at universities and other
institutions in the country. I repeated this endlessly to ministers, university
chancellors, and anybody else who cared to listen to me.
To give an example, I mention an incident that led Minister Cruz Martínez
Esteruelas, after his visit to Teide Observatory in 1974, to believe in us and in
the future of astrophysics in Spain. On returning to Madrid, he asked the
then President of CSIC, Professor Primo Yúfera, to come and visit us. Yúfera
duly made his visit and was converted to our cause as soon as he saw the reality of what we were doing and understood what the future might hold. I must
say that this head of CSIC and Alejandro Nieto who followed him have been
the only heads of that institution who have truly understood and supported us.
We encouraged Primo Yúfera to follow our model and create an institute of
astrophysics as close as possible to the Hispano–German Calar Alto
Observatory in Almeria with the aim of gradually introducing a Spanish flavour to this German enclave. In the early days of Calar Alto Observatory, it
was forbidden to raise the Spanish flag, and Spaniards were employed purely
as service staff. I used to refer to it as a mini-Gibraltar to ram home the point.
In May 1974 my name was put forward as Spanish director of this observatory, but I rejected the offer because I wanted to devote all my efforts to the
Canaries. That is how, in 1975, the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía
(IAA) was created by CSIC with its headquarters first in Almeria before being
transferred shortly afterwards to Granada. The name is clearly in the same
style as that of the IAC but for Andalucía. It gives me great joy to see that the
IAA is today a first-class centre of research and technological development. Its
first Director, and its driving force, was José María Quintana.
While on the subject of the Hispano–German Calar Alto Observatory, I
must say that it was quite a struggle to get the recently built 1.5-m optical–
infrared telescope of the Royal Observatory of Madrid (ROM) installed there.
First of all, the ROM astronomers wanted it set up in Yebes so that it would
F. Sánchez
astronomy and returned purged of all inferiority complexes and ready to do
research here.
One of our earliest successes in following this path in 1975 was to pioneer
a ‘national plan for the training of astrophysicists’. National plans were all the
rage at the time. It was a huge triumph, for a good many of the first outstanding researchers and university lecturers in this branch of science began their
training and acquired their skills as grant holders under this national plan.
We could see that, even though the large observing instruments had to be
concentrated in a few select sites, the actual astrophysical research needed to
be spread throughout the country. It was becoming daily less necessary to be
standing under a telescope to do science; it was important to encourage and
promote the creation of astrophysical research teams at universities and other
institutions in the country. I repeated this endlessly to ministers, university
chancellors, and anybody else who cared to listen to me.
To give an example, I mention an incident that led Minister Cruz Martínez
Esteruelas, after his visit to Teide Observatory in 1974, to believe in us and in
the future of astrophysics in Spain. On returning to Madrid, he asked the
then President of CSIC, Professor Primo Yúfera, to come and visit us. Yúfera
duly made his visit and was converted to our cause as soon as he saw the reality of what we were doing and understood what the future might hold. I must
say that this head of CSIC and Alejandro Nieto who followed him have been
the only heads of that institution who have truly understood and supported us.
We encouraged Primo Yúfera to follow our model and create an institute of
astrophysics as close as possible to the Hispano–German Calar Alto
Observatory in Almeria with the aim of gradually introducing a Spanish flavour to this German enclave. In the early days of Calar Alto Observatory, it
was forbidden to raise the Spanish flag, and Spaniards were employed purely
as service staff. I used to refer to it as a mini-Gibraltar to ram home the point.
In May 1974 my name was put forward as Spanish director of this observatory, but I rejected the offer because I wanted to devote all my efforts to the
Canaries. That is how, in 1975, the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía
(IAA) was created by CSIC with its headquarters first in Almeria before being
transferred shortly afterwards to Granada. The name is clearly in the same
style as that of the IAC but for Andalucía. It gives me great joy to see that the
IAA is today a first-class centre of research and technological development. Its
first Director, and its driving force, was José María Quintana.
While on the subject of the Hispano–German Calar Alto Observatory, I
must say that it was quite a struggle to get the recently built 1.5-m optical–
infrared telescope of the Royal Observatory of Madrid (ROM) installed there.
First of all, the ROM astronomers wanted it set up in Yebes so that it would
F. Sánchez