It’s been quite a week.
The UK physics community is still reeling from the massive slashing of funding to the STFC. Funding for some major projects has been discontinued (including the UK contribution to the Gemini Telescopes, a particular favourite of mine – this had been expected, given the extremely clumsy attempted withdrawal 2 years ago), while funding for others has been reduced. No further UK support for missions such as XMM (whom STFC had lobbied with ESA to keep operating), Venus Express and SOHO.
The *worst* bit though is the 25% reduction in funding for fellowships and Ph.D. studentships – in essence, it makes life extremely tough for a) those of us currently in postdoc positions who will be looking for a more permanent position within the next couple of years and b) new students wishing to move into a career in physics. Scenario a) affects me the most – at the moment, my position is ESA funded – however, if I wish to stay where I am (or stay within the UK), I need STFC funding. Fellowships, already thin on the ground, will become nigh on impossible to get as a result of this decision.
Of course, I’m not the only person affected by this – many other postdocs will be in the same boat, and the number of new Ph.D. students will be badly affected. Indeed, the cumulative effect is to basically nobble the career prospects for many at the lower rungs of physics academia in the UK for the next decade or so. No positions to move into, no funds for projects either. Given this, many of us will be reviewing our career options over the next while – some will move overseas to research positions in Europe, the US and elsewhere, and some will leave academia completely. As for myself, with a young family, moving beyond the UK is a non-starter….. so a lot of reflection lies ahead.
Herschel (which as you may know, is the ESA program I work on) had a very successful First Results workshop in Madrid at the end of last week. Principal investigators from the Key Projects presented the preliminary first results from their projects – the results of which you’ll see shortly in a torrent of press releases. Some of the images have already been released by ESA – my favourite has to be the gorgeous SPIRE/PACS composite image of the Eagle nebula.
The project I work on – the dwarf galaxy survey – also had its results presented in Madrid by our PI. But our stuff isn’t as pretty, so no ESA press release! 
All of us are furiously working on papers to be published in a special edition of ‘Astronomy & Astrophysics’ in the summer of 2010 – fun and busy times lie ahead. Herschel is a *superb* instrument, and thanks to the dedication of a *lot* of people, will continue to churn out superb results for the remainder of the mission. Cheers to all my colleagues across ESA and our international partners – it’s been a fantastic year, and fingers crossed for an equally good 2010. Especially as HIFI will begin operations again!
Finally…. I’m off for two weeks of much need R&R with my family. Have a wonderful Christmas and a very enjoyable New Year, and hopefully Santa will be in generous mood to you
