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| Now that the Vatican Observatory
has successfully met the Kresge Challenge Grant and raised $2,000,000 to improve the Vatican
Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT), the Foundation and its board of directors are focussing
their attention on raising $2,500,000 to establish two post-doctoral scholarships. This
endowment will allow two post-doctoral fellows from third world countries to carry out
research with the new VATT together with the staff of the Vatican Observatory. They would also
have the opportunity to dialogue with the staff on issues of science and religion. |
| The following article was written in
the spring of 2000 by Milagros Ruiz, an astronomer with the University of Hertfordshire who
participated in the 1990 Vatican Summer School and received a graduate scholarship from the
Jesuit Community of the Vatican Observatory to continue her education in Tucson. |
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 This summer will mark the 10th anniversary of my attendance to the 1990 Vatican
Summer School and I honestly believe that the day I was accepted to participate in
this event, was the day my life changed, completely and for the best. At that time,
as a University student in a third world country, finishing up my career in physics,
meant that I had to give up research, something I had discovered in my later years
at University and was enjoying a great deal. Moreover, the opportunities to take up
astronomy as a possible professional career were nonexistent since, even now,
astronomy is not part of any curriculum in Peru, even less at the professional level,
which is a great shame since we have the most magnificent clear skies in the Peruvian
Andes. As an amateur astronomer, I would dream of searching for answers to questions
we all would like to know whenever we look up to the skies, How, When, even Why the
universe came to be as we all see it today ..quite a task! The offer to participate
in the 1990 Vatican Summer School came at a critical moment in my life, I guess we all
have those moments in life when we make decisions that will impact our lives forever
after. This was one of those moments. I was about to get away from academia, therefore
the importance and timing of this event seemed something a bit too good to be true.
This was the opportunity of a lifetime, an enormous challenge: never been abroad,
any working English, real astronomers! I was finally finding out what real astronomers
did, what it all was about, with the help from many people, the Vatican Staff, the
lecturers and friends, it all became clear and I realize that becoming an astronomer
was not going to be easy, but I was going to try. Not only did the School helped me to
define my own career, it was also a quite an experience on the human side of science. |
For a month, we all shared knowledge, but maybe most importantly, we shared our lives
and learnt from each other, establishing a lifelong friendship and professional links.
To pursue astronomy further, I was lucky (once more!) to be offered the the Jesuit
Scholarship, soon after the Summer School, to attend grad school at Steward Observatory,
in Tucson Arizona, where the Vatican Observatory has its headquarters. It was not
simple... paper work to leave my home country was never-ending, and add to it the US
immigration laws for 'third world class citizens', and it becomes a titanic task! But
once more with the enormous help and support from Fr. Coyne and Fr. Corbally I was able
to start Grad School in Astronomy in Tucson. Graduate school was not easy, it is not
supposed to be. But I was encouraged through tough times and thanks to a wonderful
supervisor at Steward Observatory, Dr. George Rieke, I was able to complete my Ph.D. in 1997.
As a professional astronomer, now working in the UK, the dream had come true!
I often wonder, what I would be doing, where I would be in the world if I had never
had the chance of going to Castel Gandolfo in 1990. I dread to think, I can only be
immensely and forever thankful to all the people in the Vatican and Steward Observatory
that made me a professional astronomer; the future may be uncertain farther away than
ever before to answer all those universal questions, but at least I am trying my best.
One day, I aspire to help other people in my country who are in the same position as
I was, and maybe together we can have an astronomical future in our own country. At the
end, I only hope one day I can somehow repay all the help I received throughout the past
10 years.
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| If you are interested in learning more about the Vatican Observatory Foundation's Fellowship program, please contact
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