Name: Alan Smale
Title: Director, High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center
Formal Job Classification: Astrophysicist
Organization: Code 660.1, High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center, Astrophysics Science Division, Sciences and Exploration Directorate
What do you do, and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard? How do you help support Goddard’s mission?
I lead the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), one of NASA’s three primary archives for astrophysics data. The HEASARC curates X-ray and gamma-ray data from energetic cosmic phenomena such as black holes, neutron stars and active galactic nuclei. We also archive data from the cosmic microwave background, which is the relic radiation from the big bang and early universe, in infrared and radio wavelengths. We have data from dozens of space missions dating back to the dawn of X-ray astronomy in the early 1970s.
We store these data in uniform, consistent formats so that they are easy to analyze. They’re freely available to the astrophysics community and the general public, along with multi-mission software tools to analyze them.
Why did you become an astrophysicist?
I can think of two strong early memories that helped set me in this path. When I was young I was fascinated by the Apollo Moon landings — and still am. Also when I was around that same age my dad, an engineer at a local TV studio, used to take me out to the back garden to look at the Moon, planets, stars and galaxies through a small refracting telescope. Those interests persisted, and at college I took all the astronomy-related courses I could.
What is your educational background?
I grew up in Yorkshire, England, and studied at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University for a bachelor’s degree in physics, followed by a doctorate in astrophysics.
After graduating, I moved on to a three-year postdoctoral position at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, which is part of University College London but actually located in the Surrey countryside. In my research in the UK, I analyzed data from the European X-ray satellite, EXOSAT, as well as optical data from ground-based observatories in Australia, South Africa, Chile and the Canary Islands. I do miss heading out to the dome at dusk to begin a night’s observing…
How did you come to Goddard?
After my MSSL postdoc I came to Goddard to work on the Broad Band X-ray Telescope (BBXRT), an X-ray astronomy instrument that flew aboard space shuttle Columbia in December 1990 as part of the Astro-1 payload. In addition to leading the data analysis software effort and doing science with the data, I was the experiment controller during the mission, in the Goddard Operations Center. That was a very exciting time.
What are some of the highlights of your career?
After BBXRT I moved on to other space astronomy missions, including ROSAT and ASCA, each fun in its own way. A major highlight was leading the Guest Observer Facility for the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), which operated from 1995 through 2012. My team helped the community to apply for observing time, and then to access and analyze the data. The early days of the mission were hectic, but extremely fulfilling.
Another high point was the five and a half years I spent at NASA Headquarters in Washington as program executive for mission operations and data analysis, in the Astrophysics Division. Helping to manage NASA’s operating astrophysics missions at that level was obviously a great match to my interests and background, and there was never a dull moment. Then, in 2008, I returned to Goddard to take up my current job as HEASARC director.
What is most interesting about managing the HEASARC?
Managing the HEASARC is the ideal position for me. The job combines all my skills and interests: X-ray and optical astronomy, data analysis software, community support, enabling science, and communications. I remember driving back through the Goddard gate in August 2008 thinking that everything I’d done over the previous two decades had been leading up to this.
The HEASARC holdings total about 120 terabytes, which may be small compared to the petabyte volumes in optical and infrared archives, but the X-ray and gamma-ray data are very rich. We have data from over 40 high energy satellites, and over 70 missions/experiments when we include the various cosmic microwave background holdings, some based on balloon experiments and ground-based facilities. I really enjoy helping others to do science, and get a kick out of seeing cool science results at NASA press conferences, or in papers, and knowing that the HEASARC played a key supporting role in those successes.
Are you a very organized person?
Oh yes, I’m extremely organized. I always have a to-do list on the go, whether it’s for the work day or the weekend. I am always thinking about what is next on that list and mentally reorganizing. When possible, I fight to get tasks done well ahead of deadline. Of course, my workload doesn’t always allow that.
What are some of your outreach events? When you do outreach at local schools, how do you make science understandable?
I was the keynote speaker last year at a Read Across America event. I also judge local science fairs and speak in classrooms from time to time. I use a lot of straightforward language, and as much visual imagery as possible. Kids of all ages are fascinated by space, and as long as you keep it fun, they’ll generally stay with you and get the gist of it.
What other outreach do you do?
For over 25 years I have been singing with The Chromatics, a six-person vocal band (a cappella group). Four of us work at Goddard, one works at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Maryland, and one is a high school math and music teacher. My wife, Karen Smale, sings soprano with the group, and works as the editor-in-chief of the Sciences and Exploration Directorate website at Goddard.
We write a lot of our own original music and arrange it ourselves. In particular, we have a collection of astronomically correct songs, Astrocappella, which we’ve performed at the National Air and Space Museum, the Maryland Science Center, the Kennedy Center, and a bunch of science fiction conventions and schools. We used to sing at National Science Teachers Association meetings as well. Our Astrocappella CDs have been used in schools in all 50 states and other countries too.
As a result, we’ve met Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye the Science Guy and many other great science educators. They are all very engaging, knowledgeable, funny and quick thinking. They care a lot about what they are doing and are obviously deeply driven and motivated.
We’ve performed at Goddard in the past, at open-house community days, and at the Goddard Visitor Center.
You are also a science fiction author?
Just as I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t interested in astronomy, I also can’t remember a time when I wasn’t writing fiction. I’ve had over 40 science fiction stories published in various magazines and original anthologies, and three novels so far.
My novel trilogy, beginning with Clash of Eagles, presents an alternative timeline in which the Roman Empire survived in its classical form and is now moving into North America. Story origins? I was reading about pre-Columbia America, specifically about Cahokia, the Mississippian Culture city of some 20,000 people located near where St. Louis is now, and it really captured my imagination. I started writing about it and never looked back.
What do you miss most about England?
If you’d asked me 20 years ago I’d have said the cheese and the beer. These days, I miss the Yorkshire Dales the most: rolling hills, green pastures, drystone walls and lots of sheep. Although the Dales can often be foggy or rainy, whenever I visit with Karen, it’s always sunny. Somehow, she brings the sun to the Dales, which seems appropriate since she used to be a solar astronomer herself!
What is your “six-word memoir?” A six-word memoir describes something in just six words.
“Work Eat Write Sing Sleep Repeat!”
By Elizabeth M. Jarrell
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center