Ray A. Lucas
Have you ever felt that you were "called" to work in a particular field
of endeavor? In my case, I literally was...
Astronomy was my first love among the sciences as a child while growing up
on our family farm near Hillsborough, North Carolina, and while attending
school there at Cameron Park Elementary, Orange Junior High School, and
finally Orange High School. I can specifically remember the feeling
and the real change of perspective I got while less than 10, lying on my
back on a hillside on our farm and looking up at the band of the Milky Way,
realizing that I was looking at the disk of the galaxy and that intergalactic
space was to either side of it. And I can also remember being fascinated by
visits to the local planetarium and times spent reading everything I could
get my hands on related to astronomy and the study of the universe.
But I also loved many other things as well, and so many things that,
without ever really completely forgetting about astronomy, I
got distracted somewhat by many of these other things for some years,
during which I had many interesting detours... And then, after rediscovering
my passion for astronomy very late in my undergraduate career at
UNC-Chapel Hill, and working at it for some years without expectation or
even thought of gainful employment in it, it found me again as well when
Professor Morris Davis, now Professor Emeritus at UNC, unbeknownst to me,
and somewhat to my amazement, gave my name to someone at STScI. Continuing
this life-changing sequence of events, and about 24-36 hours after the
requisite visit and interviews at STScI, in the Spring of 1985, I was asked
to come and work here - practically plucked from the halls of
UNC-Chapel Hill and deposited here to work in the part of STScI, the Guide
Star Catalog and all-sky digital image archive project under the late Barry
Lasker, which was undoubtedly one of the best places for eventually becoming
involved in what interested me the most - research on peculiar or interacting
and merging galaxies.
And I also got to do further coursework
at Johns Hopkins
with Colin Norman, Allan Sandage, George Miley, and Alex Szalay.
I could only wish that I was as good
a student as they deserved. And I probably could not have consciously planned
such a convoluted path to one of my childhood dreams, had I tried!
Now, all these years later, I've been very fortunate to meet, study with, and
work with many very good people - good people in every sense of the
word - and I must say a heart-felt "thank you" to all who have helped me
and been partners, co-workers, and fellow travelers on this journey
through all the ups and downs (and ups, again!) of a project like HST.
I've been privileged to work on many interesting projects with HST and other
telescopes, and to participate in adventures like the Hubble Deep Fields
and GOODS.
Because of my name being associated with some web sites on astronomy here
at STScI, I get letters from all over the world, sometimes with requests
for advice on how to get into astronomy. I'm sure this is true of others, too.
Although I can't recommend the specific somewhat unorthodox path
that has brought me to where I am now as a way for someone to get into
astronomy, especially since there are never so many jobs in astronomy as
there are in many other fields,
what I can first say to younger people or anyone for that matter, is that
there is always more to learn, and that I am always aware of and glad of that.
And the next thing I can say is that, especially in these times, if you
want to be of benefit to
humankind, no matter what the field of study, as long as you work to promote
understanding and love rather than hate, if you nurture lots of interests and
dreams for using your talents and abilities in multiple areas, and pay
attention to developments in them, taking or even helping create any
opportunities that present themselves for involvement, even as a volunteer,
doing small or less pleasant jobs and ennobling them by your effort,
and if you are not so afraid of failure to try something, nor allow yourself to
become bitter even if you fail, if you can do something even just for the
love of it, then you can at least be glad you spent your time doing something
you loved.
(And your time really is more valuable than money, even though most of us,
myself included, have to also be concerned with the reality of making a living.)
So, if you can do all this, then you never know when you may be
unexpectedly given the chance to live some of those childhood dreams!
More? A longer though still somewhat incomplete version...
Finally, here is a bit more about
hobbies, etc.
Photo credit: Skip Westphal
The photo shows an image of an Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxy (ULIRG)
on my computer screen.
Ray Lucas
lucas@stsci.edu
08/31/02