Quotes from Industrial Astronomers
In the USA and Europe astronomy graduates are highly valued in a wide variety of industries including: finance, aerospace, advertising, biotechnology, telecommunications and publishing. Particularly appreciated are the astronomers' abilities in understanding basic scientific issues and in conceptualizing and evaluating systems level solutions. Their Software and IT abilities are often better than those of computer science graduates and their written and verbal communications skills are good. There should be no difficulty in finding an African market for the skills acquired during an astronomy education, provided that the courses are well constructed and that the skills of the astronomers are properly marketed. As the Vice-President of Bank One puts it: "A training that might have been thought to be irrelevant to business has turned out to be one of the most important of all" in a wide variety of contexts. The following quotes are from people trained in astronomy, who now work in industry and commerce.
- Rachel Pyldis at Leo Burnett
- Tamara Payne at Schafer Corporation
- Steve Kilson at Ball Aerospace
- Steve Jordan at Ball Aerospace
- Austin B. Tomane at Applied Biosystems
- Kevin B. Marvel at American Astronomical Society
- Vincent Lee at Verizon Communications
- Eric Schulman in the Defense Industry
- Bernie Fanaroff, a Government Consultant
- Amber Iler at Veridan ERIM International
- Harry Blom at Publishing
