Author Archives: Scot

New post late this week…

I’m in the middle of a research week, so will be a bit late with this week’s post. I’m having too much fun playing with data right now. 🙂

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Astronomy is a Business

Astronomers don’t always like to think so, but astronomical facilities are a business. There are more and more choices available for all classes of telescopes. Each facility must strive to provide better value for money if it hopes to survive. Doing so, though, requires a careful balancing of research and development with more mundane operational needs. Continue reading

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The Scientist Dilemma

In preparing talks on lessons learned from Sloan Digital Sky Survey Operations, I began to formulate what I refer to as the Scientist Dilemma: projects want scientists in their support roles to have their work grounded by scientific rationale. Scientists, however, expect to spend at least some part of their time doing science and the two competing sets of needs and expectations can sometimes lead to problems. Continue reading

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Alfred P. Sloan and a functional management model for Gemini

Can Gemini operate like Sloan’s GM? Is complete funcational management the way to go? Continue reading

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Is Gemini really a matrix-management organization?

Matrix management and Gemini Observatory Continue reading

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What’s this Blog about?

Who am I? Why am I here? Continue reading

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