SAS Member Brian Chapel Lands a Research Position

Brian Chapel of Victoria, British Columbia, is an active member of the Society for Amateur Scientists (SAS) who has long been interested in a full time science position. Brian now works at the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (HIA), which is one of more than 20 research institutes operated by Canada's National Research Council (NRC).

Brian writes, "My job, as a software developer, is in the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC) group on the observatory grounds at the Victoria location. The CADC archives and, in some cases electronically distributes, data from several major telescopes. They include the Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), both Gemini Telescopes (North and South), the James Clerk Maxwell telescope (JCMT), and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)."

Brian is currently working on the Gemini Science Archive, which requires a good knowledge of Java.

"It is not too early to conclude that I am going to love working there," Brian writes. "I have not been immersed in astronomy since I was an undergrad 25 years ago. This is such a contrast to the private sector. Today I attended a seminar on the distribution of mass in disk galaxies, which was vastly more interesting than hearing about quarterly profit targets."

Brian writes that SAS members with Canadian IP addresses should be able to read the English language versions of all of the NRC research journals by starting here.

The English language version of the HIA web site is here and its profile is here.

On 14 December 2005, the HIA site featured an article on family astronomy that SAS members might find of particular interest.

Forrest M. Mims III