A New Job: Radio Astronomy and Citizen Science

This is a big week both for OpenScientist and for me personally.  I just started a new job at Associated Universities, Inc and working with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.  Much of my job will be overseeing sponsored research funding and administration for all of the grants and contracts they operate.  But I will also be helping set up a citizen science program for them in radio astronomy.  A dream job for a guy like me!

For those of you who may not know, for the past ten years I have worked at the National Institutes of Health overseeing many of their grant policy and compliance efforts.  It did not directly intersect with citizen science, but as one of the largest funders of scientific research, ethics rules kept me from talking about it.  I also could not write about the large amount of biomedical research taking place with citizen science.  Projects like EyeWire, uBiome, and others were blazing interesting paths in the field but I could not write about it.  With the new job that all changes.  So expect to see much more of the "pent-up" supply of articles to be posted in the near future.

I'm also hoping to help AUI incorporate everything I've learned about citizen science over the last ten years into radio astronomy.  There are still many different ways this may happen and I don't want to make any commitments yet, but the opportunities for scientists and the public are too great not to do it.  Much of it will likely take place as part of my "day job" under the NRAO or AUI but I will also talk about it here.  Making sure you never miss out.

That's the big news!  Hopefully you will see the fruits of this new job soon, and we can continue a new journey of citizen science together.