Data Curation in Astronomy: A Case Study

Robert Hanisch
Space Telescope Science Institute

     Full text: PDF
     Last modified: November 14, 2007

Author Bio
Dr. Robert J. Hanisch is a Senior Scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, and is currently the Project Manager for ''Building the Framework for the National Virtual Observatory,'' an initiative funded by the National Science Foundation's Information Technology Research Program. In the past twenty years Dr. Hanisch has led many efforts in the astronomy community in the area of information systems and services, focusing particularly on efforts to improve the accessibility and interoperability of data archives and catalogs. From 2000 to 2002 he served as Chief Information Officer at STScI, overseeing all computing, networking, and information services for the Institute and participating as a member of the Director's Office staff. Prior to becoming CIO at STScI he had oversight responsibility for the HST Data Archive and was the leader of the effort to establish the Multimission Archive at Space Telescope (MAST) as the active optical/UV archive center for NASA astrophysics missions. He has served as chair of the program organizing committee for the Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems conferences, chair of the Space Science Data Systems Technical Working Group, chair of the Astrophysics Data Centers Coordinating Committee, and chair of the Publications Board of the American Astronomical Society. In 1999 Hanisch was a visiting professor at the Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS), France, and was a consultant to the National Academy of Sciences Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee panel on Theory, Computation, and Data Exploration, whose Decadal Survey report gives first priority to the creation of the National Virtual Observatory. He completed his Ph.D. in Astronomy in 1981 at the University of Maryland, College Park.