Merging millimeter arrays. Two California telescope arrays will be joined to form a bigger interferometer, the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter Astronomy. CARMA will marry Caltech's Owens Valley Array to the Berkeley Illinois Maryland Association's array from Hat Creek in Northern California; some new, smaller telescopes may join the family later. With si× 10.4-meter and nine 6.1-meter telescopes, CARMA will have better resolution at shorter wavelengths than the parent arrays. To be located at an undetermined site in the Inyo mountains, the newly combined array will move up in the world, from 1200 meters to roughly 2750 meters, where less atmosphere to cut through means improved sensitivity. The merger, which is expected to cost around $15 million and be completed by 2004, will be overseen by Tony Beasley, who was recently hired away from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia. Creating CARMA had been recommended for several years, most recently last summer in the National Research Council's astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey. A consortium of four universities will run CARMA.
Graduate students stats. Non-US citizens made up about half the students who started physics and astronomy graduate programs in 1997. They tend to be older, have a more solid background in physics, and to have decided on a physics career earlier than their US counterparts, according to a recent report from the American Institute of Physics. They're also twice as likely to focus on condensed matter physics and less likely to study astronomy and astrophysics. Students from China still account for more than a quarter of foreign students, but the numbers coming from Eastern and Central Europe are rising. Women, who made up about a fifth of the survey respondents, aspire to similar jobs as men--most of those with definite aims say they would like to go into research and teaching. But AIP found that incoming female students tend to be less certain of their career goals and are twice as likely as male students to feel underprepared for graduate work. The 1998 Graduate Student Report: First-Year Students compares the perceptions and plans of first-year graduate students by citizenship, degree program, and gender. It is available for free from AIP, Statistical Research Center, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3842; e-mail: stats@aip.org; or on the Web at http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/undtrends.htm.
UK physics society. Peter Williams is the new president of the UK's Institute of Physics. He came to the IOP from Oxford Instruments, where he had held a series of managerial positions since 1982. Williams is chairing a study on undergraduate physics education in the UK. The new study is a follow-up to the last big look a decade ago and is intended to gauge the effects on the field of developments such as a larger total student body, the folding of several physics departments, the introduction of tuitions, and increased pressure on faculty to show research excellence. The IOP also wants Williams to strengthen ties between the institute and physics-related industry. Williams took office on 1 October and will serve for two years. He succeeds Gareth Roberts.
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