Friday, September 3, 2010

Decadal Survey Town Hall redux

Yesterday, I went to the Decadal Survey Town Hall held at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, DC. This being within easy driving distance of University of Maryland, Goddard Space Flight Center, and Space Telescope Science Institute, I was fully expecting to have to fight for seating.

Only a few dozen people showed up.

Does this mean that everyone has heard their fill of the Decadal Survey already? That everyone is completely happy with the results? That they don't care about it? That the meeting wasn't well-publicized? That people are afraid of Washington, DC?

As for the Women in AstronomyTM perspective on the meeting, I believe I personally knew every woman except maybe one in the room. For all that astronomy is the study of the universe on the largest scales, it's a pretty small world.

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