Changes at the Top

Abstract

The arrival and commissioning of CGS4 was accompanied by a series of other changes as UKIRT began to settle into its second decade of routine operations. Some of these directly related to UKIRT itself, others were more remote, but many would have long-term implications for the way the telescope was run. The first big change came at the end of 1990 when Malcolm Longair, who had been director of the ROE for ten years, left to take up a position at the University of Cambridge. His departure marked a period of uncertainly for the ROE, which began when he was replaced by Paul Murdin, as Acting Director. Murdin’s long association with the rival Royal Greenwich Observatory made him an unpopular choice with some of the ROE staff who feared a creeping RGO take-over of ROE or even the closure of the Edinburgh site entirely. The situation was only partly resolved when the two observatories were harmonised into a single structure in 1992. RGO director Alex Boksenberg, was appointed as head of the combined Royal Observatories and took up his new post on the 15th of March 1993. At about the same time Ian Robson, by now a Professor and the head of the Physics and Astronomy Department at the University of Central Lancashire, replaced Richard Wade in Hawaii as Director of the JCMT.