Slashdot Mirror
China Built the World's Largest Telescope, But Has No One To Run It (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: China has built a staggeringly large instrument in the remote southern, mountainous region of the country called the Five hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST. The telescope measures nearly twice as large as the closest comparable facility in the world, the US-operated Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. According to the South China Morning Post, the country is looking for a foreigner to run the observatory because no Chinese astronomer has the experience of running a facility of such size and complexity. The Chinese Academy of Sciences began advertising the position in western journals and job postings in May, but so far there have been no qualified applicants. One reason is that the requirements are fairly strict: The candidate must have at least 20 years of previous experience in the field, and he or she must have taken a leading role in large-scale radio telescope project with extensive managerial experience. The candidate must also hold a professorship, or equally senior position, in a world-class research institute or university. Nick Suntzeff, an astronomer at Texas A&M University who helped lead the discovery of dark energy and is involved with construction of the optical Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile, said there are probably about 40 or so astronomers in the world who would qualify for such a job. Compared to other astronomy disciplines, radio astronomy is a relatively small field. "I am sure they will find someone," he said. "But most astronomers in the United States do not like to work abroad. It was hard to get people to apply to work in La Serena, something I could never understand, considering how beautiful it is and how nice the Chilean people are." Among the western community of astronomers there are also questions about the scientific purpose of the FAST telescope. As part of a recent National Science Foundation review of its facilities, US officials placed the similar Arecibo radio telescope near the bottom of its priorities list.
And what kind of experience would you look for in a candidate to manage a $180M telescope? Some who just graduated high school?
Isn't that what Microsoft has been doing since Windows 10 was in development?
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
It may be a cliche, but I have indeed seen a good many ads like that per IT. One insider who admitted to "playing the game" said he simply lied to get jobs like that. But those kinds of people will encourage HR and PHB's to do it again, which is probably why the practice persists.
I remember when the .Net framework was brand new (like a year or two old, tops) seeing jobs advertised that had requirements of 10 years of experience working with "C#.Net".
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
If I had to select somebody to run something like this, my first choice would be Bill Nye, without a doubt.
My second choice would be Stephen Hawking.
Why not Al Gore, he invented the telescope.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
They use spherical because the collector is spherical. For most telescopes, the collector is parabolic.
Five-hundred-meter Aperture Parabolic - FAP