61
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
F. Sánchez, The Rise of Astrophysics in Modern Spain, Astronomers’ Universe,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66426-8_8
8
Astrophysics Enters the Spanish University
Curriculum (1970–1985)
Regulated teaching of astrophysics in Spanish universities was not established
until the sixties. A mere three decades later we now find the teaching of, and
research into, the subject to be a greatly-valued part of the curriculum at universities all over the country (Chap. 24). University technology teams have
also gradually emerged in this branch of science to stimulate local technology.
In this chapter I describe how it all started.
When initiating a new discipline the usual practice is to learn from wellestablished centres where the subject is flourishing. That is how it all began in
Spain in the middle of the last century, when young physicists were sent
abroad to learn astrophysics. But candidates were initially few and grants scarce.
In the Canaries it was clear to us that there was an urgent need to train
Spanish astrophysicists if we were ever to exploit the natural astronomical
resource of the island summits. The new telescopes that were arriving needed
to be manned by young Spanish researchers, so we began to teach them the
necessary skills in situ and send them abroad for further training. We relied on
the support of our guest scientists, who began arriving with their telescopes,
first-rate European astronomers willing to teach and supervise doctoral theses.
We have steadfastly persisted in this approach.
An important step was to convince the Ministry of Education to approve
and fund what we called the ‘National plan for the training of astrophysicists’.
We urged the ministry to establish a University Institute of Astrophysics. We
issued a nationwide appeal to recent graduates in physics and carefully selected
from among the respondents. Very rigorous courses in the third (doctoral
level) cycle of physics were imparted to these first students in October of that
same year at the University of La Laguna, with twelve hours of classes per
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
F. Sánchez, The Rise of Astrophysics in Modern Spain, Astronomers’ Universe,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66426-8_8
8
Astrophysics Enters the Spanish University
Curriculum (1970–1985)
Regulated teaching of astrophysics in Spanish universities was not established
until the sixties. A mere three decades later we now find the teaching of, and
research into, the subject to be a greatly-valued part of the curriculum at universities all over the country (Chap. 24). University technology teams have
also gradually emerged in this branch of science to stimulate local technology.
In this chapter I describe how it all started.
When initiating a new discipline the usual practice is to learn from wellestablished centres where the subject is flourishing. That is how it all began in
Spain in the middle of the last century, when young physicists were sent
abroad to learn astrophysics. But candidates were initially few and grants scarce.
In the Canaries it was clear to us that there was an urgent need to train
Spanish astrophysicists if we were ever to exploit the natural astronomical
resource of the island summits. The new telescopes that were arriving needed
to be manned by young Spanish researchers, so we began to teach them the
necessary skills in situ and send them abroad for further training. We relied on
the support of our guest scientists, who began arriving with their telescopes,
first-rate European astronomers willing to teach and supervise doctoral theses.
We have steadfastly persisted in this approach.
An important step was to convince the Ministry of Education to approve
and fund what we called the ‘National plan for the training of astrophysicists’.
We urged the ministry to establish a University Institute of Astrophysics. We
issued a nationwide appeal to recent graduates in physics and carefully selected
from among the respondents. Very rigorous courses in the third (doctoral
level) cycle of physics were imparted to these first students in October of that
same year at the University of La Laguna, with twelve hours of classes per