The University of Colorado at Boulder聮s astrophysical and planetary sciences department, traditionally ranked as one of the finest in the nation, is offering an undergraduate astronomy degree for the first time beginning this fall.
The department聮s graduate studies program has long had a top-flight reputation, with faculty members and researchers bringing in more than $12 million last fiscal year in NASA and National Science Foundation space research grants, said APS chair Michael Shull. Faculty, researchers and graduate students are involved in a myriad of space activities, from building key instruments for NASA spacecraft to making groundbreaking astronomical discoveries with various space- and ground-based telescopes.
"A program review five years ago crystallized the need for an undergraduate component to the APS department," said Shull. "We worked in earnest to develop a quality program, eventually receiving approval from the campus administration, the university system, the CU Board of Regents and finally the Colorado Commission on Higher Education."
Although CU-Boulder already has an aerospace engineering department, "There has been a need for some time to address the basic science behind astrophysics and planetary science for undergraduates at CU-Boulder," he said. "One big plus to an undergraduate degree like ours is that there are a tremendous number of jobs out there available to graduates, including positions with NASA, the aerospace industry, software companies, science media, science policy organizations and K-12 schools."
The astronomy degree has two tracks, said Shull, also an APS professor. One is a general astronomy degree, which is an APS degree only. The second is an astrophysics/physics degree jointly supervised by APS and the physics department and designed for students interested in pursuing graduate studies in astrophysics.
The general astronomy track emphasizes the science of astronomy, observations and technology, said Shull. Students will be trained in astronomy, mathematics, applied physics and computational and instrumental technology required for professions in the space sciences.
Shull anticipates that some students will be inclined toward observations with ground- and space-based telescopes and rocket probes, while others will have strong interests in K-12 science education.
The astrophysics/physics track is directed toward students interested in continuing their academic careers, he said. Students will be educated by faculty in both the physics and APS departments and provided with scientific and technical training in the space sciences, including mathematical, physical, computational and instrumental expertise.
The ultimate goal of the new APS astronomy major is to provide practical and theoretical knowledge of astronomy and astrophysics as well as hands-on experience with telescopes, optics, instrumentation, computer-image processing and computer modeling, said Shull. He anticipates the undergraduate major could accommodate as many as 100 students, although the initial goal is about 60 students.
"Even though we have been a powerhouse in education and research for a long time, APS has been a 聭hidden department聮 in some ways," he said. "But many of our rostered faculty are internationally known researchers associated with some of CU聮s finest institutes, including the Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, JILA and the Center for Astrobiology."
APS faculty and students built a $9 million spectrometer for the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Observer Satellite launched in June 1999, and are spearheading a NASA project in collaboration with Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. of Boulder to design and build a third-generation, $40 million Hubble Space Telescope instrument known as the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph to study the origins of galaxies.
Although CU annually is among the top university users of the Hubble Space Telescope, the university needs a large, ground-based telescope of its own to compete with other top-flight space universities, he said. Shull is now spearheading an effort to buy into a small university consortium that would own and maintain a large telescope.
"We need our own large telescope in order to train students and faculty," he said. While the department has raised nearly $1 million for the project to date, it will need roughly twice that much to join a small consortium and have daily access to the size and quality of telescope capable of performing world-class research.