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Session 47 - The Shapley Visiting Lectureship Program.
Topical, Oral session, Tuesday, June 09
Friars,
The Shapley Program began as an NSF-funded visiting professors program in the 1980s. The American Astronomical Society kept it going by raising an endowment fund to support it, largely under the leadership of Bart Bok and Peter Van de Kamp and with significant help from the Shapley family. I will review the operation of the program during this time, with particular emphasis on the 1979 - 1985 period where I was very closely involved. Evaluations of the program revealed that it has contributed very substantially to the public appreciation of astronomy, particularly in places which are remote from the planetariums and science museums located in major urban centers. There are indications that it contributed to the decisions of many universities to add astronomers to their faculty.
