Below follows the Annual Report of the Stockholm Observatory for the year 1999. It is gratifying to see that the scientific productivity of the Observatory continued to rise also during 1999. We had an exceptional year in terms of production of university points in the undergraduate teaching (50% more than our undertaking), mainly due to our introductory astronomy courses, and in particular a very successful course in general astronomy during the summer period. As usual, the activity with public shows in the evenings attracts many visitors, and the personal of the Observatory remains very active in different media.
A number of people have come and left the Observatory during the year. Anlaug Amanda Kaas defended her PhD thesis, and left for a post-doc position at ESTEC. Anna Grigorieva from Russia and Boris Gudiksen from Denmark started their PhD studies. Andrei Beloborodov from Russia stayed on at an NFR research associate position after finishing an NFR postdoctoral fellowship. Two new postdocs, Nicole van der Bliek from the Netherlands and Taku Takeuchi from Japan, and a guest scientist, Alexander Men'shchikov from Russia, arrived during the year. Göran Östlin came to the Observatory on an NFR repatriation grant. Finally, Matt Delaney was employed as a system manager.
In spite of the economical difficulties facing many university departments,
Stockholm Observatory has been able to more or less balance its budget also
during 1999, but continued, non-financed, salary rises are now threatening
the budget for the running costs. The external funding remained at the
same level, but external funding for graduate students is decreasing
markedly. The building of the Stockholm Centre for Astronomy and
Physics is proceeding according to plans, and the move of Stockholm
Observatory to the new Centre is scheduled for the summer of 2001.
March 2000
Hans Olofsson, Director
Stockholm Observatory, SE-133 36 Saltsjöbaden, Sweden