By MARK KEIERLEBER

Since 2006, Taft E. Arman-droff has directed one of the worlds leading astronomi-cal-research facilities, atop a dor-mant volcano in Hawaii with ter-rain that resem-bles that of Mars or the moon.

Primarily work-ing from the small town of Waimea, Mr. Armandroff, 53, has led a team of astronomers at W.M. Keck Ob-servatory, 14,000 feet above sea lev-el at the summit of Mauna Kea on Hawaiis largest island.

In May, Mr. Armandroff will leave Waimea and move to the South-west, where he will become a pro-fessor at the University of Texas at Austin and director of its McDon-ald Observatory, 450 miles west of Austin, beneath some of the darkest night skies in the United States.

Though Keck is a global lead-er in the number of publications per telescope per year and in op-tical and infrared astronomy, Mc-Donald Observatory has a huge amount of potential, Mr. Arman-droff says.

I probably have one more big challenge that I can do in my ca-reer as an observatory adminis-trator, he says. I love the South-west. I love Hawaii, too, so its more about the astronomy than the physical location.

Before becom-ing Kecks direc-tor, Mr. Arman-droff worked for 19 years at the National Opti-cal Astronomy Observatory, in Tucson, Ariz., as associate director and director of the NOAO Gem-ini Science Cen-ter. As the author or co-author of 41 refereed jour-nal articles and review papers, he is a respected research astrono-

mer in dwarf spheroidal galaxies, stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, globular clusters, the chemical evolution of galaxies, and dark matter.

Those credentials helped him land his new job in Texas, says Chris Sneden, a professor in Aus-tins astronomy department and leader of the search committee. He says Mr. Armandroff will bring a fresh perspective to the Texas operation. Mr. Armandroff will succeed David Lambert, whom

he calls the world expert in stellar abundanceswhat stars are made of and what processes caused them to contain certain elements.

Along with leading the McDon-ald Observatorys strategic plan-ning, Mr. Armandroff will take over several projects already in the works. One will be to lead the universitys engagement in the Gi-ant Magellan Telescope, an inter-national effort to construct a new instrument in Chile that astrono-mers say will have as much as 10 times the light-gathering capaci-ty of todays telescopes. It will be completed in about 2020.

McDonald Observatory, one of the worlds leading centers for as-

tronomical research, teaching, and public education and outreach, sits atop Mount Locke, with facili-ties on Mount Fowlkes, in the Da-vis Mountains of West Texas. The complex includes the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, one of the worlds largest optical telescopes, with a 9.2-meter mirror, among several other tele-scopes and instruments.

Mr. Armandroff will also be charged with completing McDon-alds Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment, the first ma-jor effort to probe dark energy, thought to be the cause of the ac-celeration of the expansion of the universe. The experiment will col-lect data on at least a million gal-

axies that are nine billion to 11 bil-lion light-years away, creating the largest map of the universe ever produced.

Dark energy has been called the single-most-unsolved-problem in physics and astronomy today, Mr. Armandroff said.

Mr. Armandroff says he also looks forward to welcoming people who visit the observatory to take in the night sky.

Thats something I hope to con-tinue, Mr. Armandroff says, is the great work that has been done at McDonald in terms of engag-ing the public in everything thats learned about our universe with modern astronomy.

Dark Energy Draws an Observatorys Director From Hawaii to Texas

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Taft Armandroff

JOB MOVES

n Patrick D. Gallagher, acting deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce and director of the Nation-al Institute of Standards and Technol-ogy, will become chancellor and chief executive of the University of Pitts-burgh. He succeeds Mark A. Norden-berg, who will step down on August 1, after leading the university for 19 years.n Kimberly Wright Cassidy, interim president of Bryn Mawr College since July 2013, was named to the post per-manently. She had been the colleges provost. n Sanjeev Kulkarni, a professor of electrical engineering at Princeton University and director of its Keller Center, will become dean of the uni-versitys Graduate School on March 31. He succeeds William B. Russel, who will step down after serving as dean since 2002. The goal of the Keller Center is to encourage stu-dents to become leaders in a technol-ogy-driven society.n Samuel Hoi, president of Otis College of Art and Design, in Los Angeles, will become president of Maryland Insti-tute College of Art in July. He succeeds Fred Lazarus IV, who will step down af-ter 36 years as president.

n Robyn S. Hadley, founder and ex-ecutive director of the Whats After High School? program in Burlington, N.C., has been named associate vice chancellor and director of the John B. Ervin Scholars Program at Washington University in St. Louis. The program awards scholarships to exceptional in-coming freshmen with commitments to community service and diversity. She will be the programs second director, following James E. McLeod, who led the program from 1986 until his death, in 2011.n Joanne F. Goldstein, who has stepped down as Massachusetts sec-retary of labor and workforce devel-opment, will take the newly created position of associate vice president forwork-force development and employ-er engagement in the College of Profes-sional Studies at Northeastern Univer-sity in May. She will focus on integrat-ing work-force needs into the colleges academic programs.

DEPARTURE

n Richard Carpen-ter, chancellor of the Lone Star Col-lege system, in Tex-as, says he will re-tire this summer for health and family rea-sons. He has led the system since 2007 and has been a col-

lege president or chief executive for 32 years, including in the Wisconsin Tech-nical College system.

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