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NAIC/AO Newsletter, March 1997
Good afternoon to all of you, and what a good afternoon it is.
You know, over the last few years when, as we all do once in a while, I would daydream about this moment I always thought that I did not want to do what everyone else does. I wanted to be different and not burden everyone with long lists of "thank you"s, acknowledgments, and the obvious.
But how to do this, when at the same time it is obvious that this is the moment to thank and acknowledge those who did help along this long journey, which ends today. I will tell you something about this journey later, since it was a "long and winding road" as John Lennon has said.
Your program has three pages with the names of those individuals and organizations who contributed funds for this project. Please look at them. For example there is one mentioning Sony, Cellular One, and Seven Up among many others. In the name of all the people who will benefit from your generosity, especially the youth of Puerto Rico, thank you, very very much.
This center, which we inaugurate today, is our gift to the people of Puerto Rico, especially to the students of our schools and universities. With it, and the educational outreach programs we will develop, we expect to be a partner to those involved in the teaching of science, a much needed endeavor. Two levels of exhibits tell our visitors about some general aspects of our sciences, and at the higher level (physically that is) the work done at the Arecibo Observatory. The auditorium offers a place to organize scientific workshops and science teacher workshops.
Our thanks go first and foremost to the Angel Ramos Foundation for their generous support from the very beginning. Their challenge grant set all this in motion and we recognize this today in the naming of this center. It is my pleasure to greet Doña Argentina Hills, president of the Foundation, Dr. Francisco Carreras, Executive Director, Manuel Bermudez, Treasurer, and the members of the Board of Directors who accompany us here today.
We are grateful to "our" municipality, the Arecibo Municipality, represented by Mayor Angel Román and his staff, and the former mayor Frankie Hernández Jovet for providing significant support to this project, as did the government of Puerto Rico. Our thanks in particular to the Honorable Governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro Roselló, the Honorable Charlie Rodríguez, President of the Senate of Puerto Rico, and the Honorable Norberto Nieves, member of the House for the district of Arecibo.
At the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, Miguel Domenech, Carlos Diago, and Luis Fortuño gave their helping hands, and it is my pleasure to welcome the Executive Director of the Tourism Company, Jorge Dávila. I also would like to thank the Secretary of Transportation and Public Works Carlos Pesquera who contributed to the infrastructure for this project. Many individuals over these years gave a hand to help this project along, too many to mention. Let me nevertheless thank Carmen Luz Ramos, Gonzalo Ferrer, Don José Victor Oliver, Wallace González Oliver, and Major General Felix (Fate) Santoni, who were there from the very beginning, about 1988.
It pleases me to see our university friends (and my friends) here today. My greetings to Norman Maldonado, President of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR). We have recently established collaborative programs with the University of Puerto Rico, and with this new center and the soon to be completed upgrade of our telescope, we expect to enter a new era of vigorous collaboration.
It is my pleasure also to greet Victor Fajardo, Secretary of the Puerto Rico Department of Education. We look forward to working with your staff to establish educational programs for science teachers.
The idea of having a center for the visitors at the Observatory is an old one. After all, from very early on, in the 1960s long lines would form to see the telescope, and over the past years we have been visited by about 50,000 visitors every year.
So it is natural that this idea was much in the minds of my predecessors as directors of the Observatory who I am pleased to see here today: Harold Craft, Don Campbell, Riccardo Giovanelli, and Mike Davis. It was Riccardo Giovanelli who gave birth to this project in about 1988, and put a lot of his energy and inspiration in getting it started.
When I joined the Observatory in 1989, I was told by Mike Davis that I might take an interest in pursuing this goal, and coming from UPR and believing that this was an idea whose time had come, I gladly accepted the challenge. I do not know if my friend Giovanelli knew what he was getting me into when he encouraged me to pursue this goal ("Go for it."). My thanks also to Gregorio Treivich and Edgar Frankfurter, who over the years encouraged me to do the best I could.
Now it is done, and all that time, which sometimes seemed wasted, now looks like time well spent, and all the sleepless nights now seem like good dreams, and what was a real dream is now reality.
But as you well know, something like this is not the work of one person alone; it is a team.
I want to tell you something about those who worked on this project.
I begin with the architect, Luis Badillo of Mendez Brunner Badillo and Associates. I do not have to tell you much about his work; you will soon promenade through it and admire it. For me and the others on this project it was a pleasure working with you, Luis, we appreciate what you did.
Certain parts of your design, Luis, I know gave Hector Varela, of Hector Varela, Inc., the contractor for this project, quite a headache. The challenge however was met with professional skill and effort. Now the dust has settled (literally) and I trust you, Hector, will admit that the end result was worth the effort.
A grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) provided for the exhibition program, which you will soon see. We are grateful to the Informal Science Education program of the NSF for this support--without it we would have an empty building.
The exhibits were designed by Zalisk Martin Associates of Cambridge, Mass. It is a pleasure for me to see Eileen Zalisk and Peter Martin here today. I know how hard you worked and what a difficult customer we might have been. On the other hand again I think the end result is very satisfying. They were supported by two excellent subcontractors for the fabrication of the exhibitions and interactives. I am pleased to greet John Hambleton of Caribbean Woodworking of San Juan and recognize the work of Museum Productions of Toronto Canada.
Of course all of you had contracts with us and were paid to do a job. But your professionalism and willingness to make that extra effort made a great difference in the outcome, and for this I thank you.
When before I said "we" I meant all those on our staff who worked very hard over the years to help achieve this goal.
This project received the support of Cornell University at the highest levels, and I thank President Frank Rhodes, and Norman Scott, Vice-president for Research and Advanced Studies, who I am pleased to greet today, for this support.
The Director of the NAIC, Paul Goldsmith, the Associate Director Don Campbell, and the Administrative Director Gene ("Eugenio") Bartell were always there when needed to help this project along, and Eugenio kept me out of trouble. The Chairman of the Cornell Department of Astronomy, Yervant Terzian, was an enthusiastic supporter and obtained for us a beautiful meteorite collection.
Many members of the Observatory staff helped with this project. I thank all the department heads and the administrative staff for the support they gave. My thanks to the members of the staff who provided us with ideas and input for the project, got involved with different aspects of this complex project, and gave of their time to help with the exhibitions and the preliminary evaluations.
In all team work there are some key individuals without which I feel this could not have been done.
I remember when several years ago I would don a coat and tie (not something I like to do) and go with Rey Medina to all sorts of meetings with all sorts of persons to give presentations about what we wished to do, and see if we could get a donation. I felt like an encyclopedia salesperson. Rey's knowledge of people and places (here we would say, "Mas enchufao que la telefónica.") contributed very much to our success in our fund- raising campaign. Rey also took care of organizing the operation and the new store and solved many problems which arose along the way. Thank you, Rey.
José Nicolás Maldonado can add another feather to his cap. His dedication and commitment to this project from its inception was crucial. With his staff he managed and helped with this project with characteristic determination. I know that he did this in spite of a very heavy load, because he believed in the goals we set for ourselves. I learned a lot from him and wonder what it is we shall do next. Thank you, Maldo.
Jo Ann Eder was co-director of the exhibition program, and much of what you will see inside reflects her work and thought. Over more than four years Jo Ann did much of the work, which has made the exhibitions what they are. Thank you, Jo Ann.
The work to translate the text was arduous, and was by its very nature one of the last things we did. We made it, as one says, "photo finish," thanks to the hard work of José Alonso who has recently joined our staff to head the center, and to my wife Celia, who throughout this project encouraged me, helped me, and shared (if that is the right word) some of those sleepless nights with me. This is indirectly also a contribution by the Angel Ramos Foundation . . . but that is a different story.
The National Science Foundation supports scientific and engineering research and educational programs at all levels. As a research center of the NSF, our mission at the Observatory is to support research in the areas of radio astronomy, planetary radar astronomy, and atmospheric sciences. With the completion of the telescope upgrade this year, we expect to remain a major player in these fields well into the next century.
In this complex society of changing priorities we must do all we can to help people understand the value of what we scientists do, to convey the importance and excitement of the sciences, and encourage young people to consider a career in the sciences. We owe it to ourselves and to our society. I feel proud that with this unique center, and the programs we are developing for teacher workshops, we are contributing to this goal, and we are setting an example for others to follow.
Let me end by saying that I hope you will return often with friends and relatives to visit. I am happy and tired, but not tired enough not to enjoy the party . . .
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