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Given the damage that the current Astronomer Royal is doing to astronomy research in the UK is there any way that the BAA could petition the King to remove her from the post. I guess the BAA could poll their members to see if they are in favour of this.
I don’t know if there is any precedence for this but given yesterday’s news about Jodrell Bank I think a fair few members must be asking why the Astronomer Royal is making funding cuts like this (in her other role as Chair of the STFC).
She was forced to step down as President of the Institute of Physics, after just 3 months in the role, due to the conflict of interest with the STFC role.As you say, I think it is very clear that the Astronomer Royal has a conflict of interest as the Chair of the STFC panel which took this decision. Plenty of professional astronomers feel the same way.
What more evidence is needed, than the way the Astronomer Royal for Scotland has been doing all the media interviews in defence of Jodrell, while the Astronomer Royal for England has stayed quiet? Last time I checked, Cheshire was in England.
I doubt that the BAA holds much sway on this issue, or that His Majesty has much inclination to intervene. But publicly drawing attention to the conflict of interest, and the way England’s Astronomer Royal is currently AWOL, can’t do any harm.
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