On the Graduate Schools of University Astronomers

Details On the Graduate Schools of University Astronomers On the Graduate Schools of University Astronomers

May 1988

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1988pasp..100..641d&link_type=abstract

Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific v.100, p.641

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

2

Astronomers: Astronomy Education

Scientific paper

We investigated the hypothesis that over the past few decades the number of graduate schools supplying academic astronomers has increased significantly. This study was motivated by a desire to identify those schools, if any, which dominate the training of astronomers at work in universities. Our source of data was a recent compilation of graduate schools of physics and/or astronomy which offer advanced degrees in astronomy or astrophysics, totaling 1004 individuals in all professorial ranks. Of this sample, slightly more than half were produced by only ten universities. The same ten productive schools graduated nearly identical fractions of all three professorial ranks, which argues against our hypothesis that a wider variety of schools is currently training academic astronomers. Although large graduate programs would be expected, over time, to produce larger numbers of astronomy professors, the effect that we observe is not a strong consequence of the size of the program: some small schools (e.g., Yale, Princeton) trained almost as many current professors as did much larger schools (e.g., Harvard, Caltech). However, longevity must be a factor, with older programs having produced many more professors than more recent programs. Nevertheless, based on the reported number of Ph.D. degrees granted, some schools appear to be substantially more successful at placing their graduates in academic positions. An Appendix discusses the composition of the American Astronomical Society.

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