take the existing tools and re-implement
them on the web; we intend to take a full
step back and have a clear view of require-
ments and usability before we even think
about a line of code.
Therefore, we will be starting a working
group to develop the high-level user require-
ments. The membership of this group will
include Gemini staff, NGO representatives,
and members of the user community. The
working group will review all feedback we
have had on the existing tools, discuss pos-
sible fundamental changes in approach, and
make recommendations for top-level needs
and requirements, with examples written as
user stories.
Note that the fundamental change in the un-
derlying infrastructure may also make pos-
sible some other changes, such as enabling
Principal Investigators to request physical
observing conditions (seeing, etc.) “on tar-
get” rather than by conditions percentiles.
Institute of Technology and Durham Uni-
versity in the UK. John earned his PhD from
MIT in 1997, and has worked on a variety of
research topics, including galaxy structure
and evolution, supermassive black holes, the
extragalactic distance scale, globular cluster
populations, and data analysis pipelines.
John is very familiar with Gemini, and for the
past several years has worked in Canada’s
National Gemini Office. In his capacity as
Chief Scientist, John will be instrumental in
setting and implementing Gemini’s scientif-
ic goals and directions while working closely
with our international user community from
the Gemini South Base Facility in La Serena,
Chile. Gemini’s Interim Director Laura Fer-
rarese notes, “The remarkable breadth of
John’s scientific interests makes him ideally
suited to lead Gemini’s vision into the next
decade. We are all looking forward to wel-
coming him at Gemini and working together
to further enhance the role our Observatory
will play in the years to come.”
What’s the timescale for all this? A little hard
to say given the scale of the work, but we
hope to switch off the old OCS by the end of
2019. Meanwhile, there will be incremental
releases of the various tools and facilities as
they develop.
Announcing Gemini’s New
Chief Scientist John Blakeslee
As of the publication of this issue, John
Blakeslee begins his duties as Gemini’s new
Chief Scientist. John comes to Gemini from
the National Research Council’s Herzberg
Institute of Astrophysics, in Victoria, British
Columbia, where he has served as an As-
tronomer and Senior Research Officer. Prior
to that, he was a faculty member at Wash-
ington State University and a Research Sci-
entist at Johns Hopkins University. He also
held postdoctoral positions at the California
October 2017
GeminiFocus
22