I mentioned about ten days ago that I was stepping down from my position as Chair and leaving the Euclid Consortium Diversity Committee (ECDC for short). The tedious matter of my broken laptop delayed the official handover, however, so it was only today that I managed to do the official handover to the new ECDC at a Zoom telecon. That was the last ECDC telecon I will chair and, indeed, the last one I will attend. I’ve been participating in these meetings every two weeks or so for four years now, for the last year as Chair, so they have been a regular feature in my calendar for quite a while. Chairing involves quite a lot of preparatory work – compiling and circulating the agenda, keeping minutes, etc – so it feels good to have the responsibility lifted!
I’d like to wish all the new members of the ECDC, who I met (virtually) for the first time today, and those previous members who are continuing, all the best in the future. I’d also like to extend personal thanks to those members who are leaving this year, especially Marc, Florence and Chiara. I’ve enjoyed everyone’s contribution to the discussions.
I’ll still have telecons for other things, of course. In fact I had two others today alone. Why are they so tiring? For better or worse, Zoom meetings are a standard part of academic life nowadays, even more so if you work in a big international consortium such as Euclid for which in-person meetings are not generally feasible. I won’t complain that I’ll be having many fewer of them in future though!
It was officially announced at last year’s Euclid Consortium Meeting in Copenhagen that I had been appointed to the role of Chair of the Euclid Consortium Diversity Committee (ECDC). Following the tradition, a similar announcement was made at the Rome meeting this year that from 1st July there would be a new Chair in the form of Helmut Dannerbauer, who is based at the Instituto de Astrofísicas de Canarias on Tenerife. There are still a few loose ends to tie up, not helped by my computer problems, but I’m gradually winding up my activity on the ECDC and handing things over to Helmut.
As I pointed out in my post last year, I was in the final year of my stint on the ECDC when I was made Chair so it was always envisaged that I would serve for only one year. I only agreed to do it, in fact, because I had my sabbatical coming up. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do the job alongside a full teaching and other workload and didn’t even consider continuing after my sabbatical was over.
Instead of trying to describe the role and activities of the ECDC generally, I will direct you to the information given on the brand new Euclid Consortium website which is a one-stop shop for everything to do with Euclid. You can find specific information about Equity, Diversity and Conduct there and/or on the ECDC’s own public website here from which I’ve taken a screengrab of the nice banner:
Just for information, the Euclid Consortium has about 2600 members so it really is a very large organization. It is also very international, with many people working in countries they were not born in and whose language is not their first. It is the aim of the ECDC to encourage a positive and inclusive environment within it for the benefit of everyone in it. The diversity in Euclid has many dimensions, including gender, nationality, ethnicity, and career stage as well as type of work; Euclid comprises specialists in instrumentation, software engineering, observational astronomy and theory to name but a few. The aim of the ECDC is to try to make sure everyone can work together in an inclusive environment.
It has been good to see over the few years some policies have been implemented to allow a greater diversity among leadership roles in the Euclid Consortium, especially by having a planned programme of rotating chairs and coordinators. I think this and other inititiatives are making a difference.
Euclid was launched a year ago yesterday, and the past twelve months have involved a huge amount of hard work by everyone concerned and not a little tension in some parts. The stress will continue as we head towards DR1, the first main Data Release, in 2026. The Euclid Consortium has a Code of Conduct to remind members to behave professionally towards their fellow workers at all times.
I’d like to wish all the new members of the ECDC, and those continuing, all the best in the future. I’d also like to extend personal thanks to those members who are leaving this year, especially Marc, Florence and Chiara. We have had regular telecons virtually every fortnight for the last year and I’ve enjoyed everyone’s contribution to the discussions.
I have now entered that strange twilight zone between Christmas and New Year during which it is difficult to remember which day is which, so I thought I’d just do a quick retrospective about the thing that has the biggest effect on my professional life in 2023, namely the Euclid satellite.
Euclid was launched halfway through the year, on July 1st, an event that took place just a week after or so after the annual Euclid Consortium Meeting in Copenhagen when I took over as Chair of the Euclid Consortium Diversity Committee. The latter led to a huge increase in the number of telecons I had to attend, not only the ECDC’s own bi-weekly Zoom meetings but also various other committees that the ECDC Chair attends ex officio. Much of the Chair’s work is confidential, which means there is no-one to consult with about the difficult matters. Had I not been on sabbatical since September I don’t think I would have had either the time or the energy to carry out these duties. It has taken me quite a while to get the hang of this role, but I do feel that it’s important and that I have contributed in a small way to the Euclid Consortium.
As for the scientific side of Euclid, after a few technical issues the commissioning of Euclid’s instruments is now more-or-less over and the final preparations are being made for the survey proper, which will take commence in the New Year. What is going on now is called a phase diversity analysis, which is being used to verify and improve the performance of the optical system.
In November, a set of Early Release Observations were published. Early in the New Year a number of scientific papers about these will be published, along with other papers about Euclid in general, including an overview paper that provides a high-level description of the mission. Data relating to the Early Release Observations will also be released to the general public.
After that the survey will begin in earnest. The full exercise will take six years to complete – I’ll have retired before it finishes – but there will be a first data release (DR1) using one year’s worth of survey data. That should give a good idea of how well it’s all going to work out for the full survey. That data will be made available to the public.
If all goes to plan, after the annual EC meeting (which next year will be in Rome, from 17th to 21st June), I’ll be stepping down as ECDC Chair and indeed from the ECDC altogether. That is just as well because my sabbatical will be over at the end of August and I’ll be back to a full teaching and admin load at Maynooth, assuming there’s still a Department to return to!
Yesterday I gave a talk at the UK Euclid Consortium (EC) Meeting in London in my role as Chair of the ECDC (Euclid Consortium Diversity Committee). I didn’t actually go to London, but delivered my talk virtually (not without a few hiccups, but I won’t go into that). My presentation was just a short one, outlining some of the things the ECDC does and encouraging others to get involved. One of the matters arising was the EC Code of Conduct, which has recently been updated. This document covers work within the EC generally, as well as specific rules governing EC-sponsored events, such as the meeting I spoke at. Incidentally, one of the latter rules is that organizers should facilitate virtual attendance at meetings, which they clearly did for me yesterday!
Coincidentally, there was a news item in Nature today that reminded me of a post on this blog from a couple of years ago. That was when news first broke of a bullying scandal at the University of Lund, specifically in the historic Lund Observatory, home of the Astronomy Department. Two professors were involved, Sofia Feltzing and Melvyn Davies. As far as I understand the situation, both are still employed by the University, in the Department of Geology and the Department of Mathematics respectively.
The latest news from Lund is that in the aftermath of this scandal, the Astronomy Department has been closed and the staff previously in it subsumed into Physics. That’s a pretty drastic step. In my experience forced mergers of departments, though popular with autocratic managers, are usually counterproductive from the point of view of staff morale. Precisely what the closure of the Lund Observatory after 350 years is meant to achieve is beyond me, but I assume that the atmosphere there had become so toxic that the authorities couldn’t think of anything else to do.
This is a demonstration of something I’ve often said in talks about EDI work. When matters come to formal disciplinary process – if they ever do – the outcome is almost never satisfactory in any respect, not least because the outcomes are often concealed by Non-Disclosure Agreements. The only really hope of creating an inclusive workplace is to ensure that bullying and harassment don’t happen in the first place, or are snuffed out very early on. Early intervention, mediation and conflict resolution are far more likely to provide a successful outcome than formal processes. The problem is that junior members of a department, who are most likely to be the target of bullying, do not feel empowered to make a complaint until it’s too late.
A binding Code of Conduct is one thing, but in order to work it has to be able to be enforced. That is why I agree with the approach suggested by the 21 Group, namely that there should be independent investigators for such matters whose conclusions are binding.
It was officially announced at the Euclid Consortium Meeting in Copenhagen this morning that I have been appointed to the role of Chair of the Euclid Consortium Diversity Committee (ECDC). This has been in the pipeline for a while, but I have refrained from saying anything publicly until the appointment was endorsed by the Euclid Consortium Lead (ECL) and Euclid Consortium Board (ECB) which has now happened.
The previous Chair, Prof. Mathilde Jauzac, is stepping down because her term on the ECDC has come to an end. I’ve been a member of the ECDC for three years during which time Mathilde has done a brilliant job as Chair and she’ll be a very difficult act to follow in this role. There was a standing ovation in the room this morning when Mathilde finished delivering her final ECDC report. It will be down to me to deliver next year’s report, at the 2024 Euclid Consortium Meeting, which will be in Rome.
Instead of trying to describe the role and activities of the ECDC generally, I will direct you to the information given on the brand new Euclid Consortium website which is a one-stop shop for everything to do with Euclid. You can find specific information about Equity, Diversity and Conduct there and/or on the ECDC’s own public website here from which I’ve taken a screengrab of the nice banner:
Just for information, the Euclid Consortium has about 2700 members so it really is a very large organization, and it is the aim of the ECDC to encourage a positive and inclusive environment within it for the benefit of everyone in it.
I’m looking forward to this role for the next year. I have only one year left of my term left on the ECDC so I will almost certainly be Chair for one year only. As regular readers of this blog – both of them – will know, I am on sabbatical next year which means I should have time to take on this responsibility, which I wouldn’t be able to do if I had my full teaching and admin load.
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In the Dark 