The Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) is a joint venture of the Smithsonian Institution and the Harvard College Observatory, and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Its mission is “to advance our understanding of the Universe through astrophysical research and education.” The CfA comprises three Institutes: the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), the Harvard College Observatory (HCO), and the Institute for Theory and Computation (ITC).
The Center employs over 400 scientists, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, support staff, and administrators. The majority of the Center’s personnel are located at its main campus in Cambridge; however SAO staff are also based at its Submillimeter Array site on Mauna Kea in Hawaii and ITC staff are primarily based out of MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research.
The current Director of the CfA is Charles Alcock. He succeeded Irwin Shapiro in 1998. Shapiro served as director from 1982 to 1998. John Neyman was interim director while a search was conducted for Shapiro’s successor. George Biddell Airy served as first director from 1883 to 1896 when he returned to England after being appointed Astronomer Royal there. Edward Coddington served as second director from 1896 until his death in 1900. William Atherton Frost took over directorship after Coddington’s death but only held office until 1903 when he resigned due to poor health. Percy Seymour-Smith became fourth director upon Frost’s resignation; he only lasted one year before resigning himself due to ill health brought on by overwork. James Edward Keeler became fifth director upon Seymour-Smith’s resignation; he held office until 1909 when financial problems forced him to step down so that he could take up a position at Lick Observatory where he could raise needed funds. Harlow Shapley took office as sixth director in 1910 and remained until 1922 whenRobert Julius Thorne succeeded him. Thorne would serve until 1940. After Thorne left Office Otto Struve became acting head from 1940–1941 followed by Bart Bok who also acted as head from 1941–1942 during which time Robert Emden served as deputy head. Lyman Spitzer Jr., future namesake of NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, became ninth director following Bok’s tenure; however World War II interrupted his leadership so Bernard lyot temporarily led during 1945 while Spitzer worked on war related projects such as developing methods to detect submarines using sound waves which were employed in both the Atlanticand Pacific oceans during wartime.:168 In 1946 Spitzer resumed his duties which he continued until 1954 during which time Walter Adams led HCO while Hugh Dryden led SAO under Spitzer’s umbrella leadership.):31 UnderSpitzer leadership several important telescopes were built or placed into service including: The 200-inch Hale telescope on Palomar Mountain,, Yerkes 40-inch refractor,, 48-inch reflector on Mount Wilson,, 60-foot tower telescope at Steward Observatory,, 100-foot Golson Radio Telescope at Oak Ridge National Laboratory,,107-foot Millimeter Wave Radio Telescope near Danbury Connecticut, 140 foot “Radio quiet” solar tower observatory atop Mt Hopkins Arizona,,”Big Ear” Ohio State University Radio Telescope near Delaware Ohio used for SETI searches among other things prior to its decommissioning in 1997). During this period several new academic departments devoted to astrophysics were created including those at Princeton University, University California Berkeley, Cornell University Ithaca New York, University Chicago Illinois , Indiana University Bloomington Indiana , Dartmouth College Hanover New Hampshire , UCLA , UC Santa Cruz California , UT Austin Texas . Other notable achievements included helping secure funding for Fermilab near Batavia Illinois home of Tevatron particle accelerator):163 And Arecibo ionospheric observatory Puerto Rico ) .