Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation and the National Science Foundation

TL;DR

This paper reviews the thirty-year history of the ATI program, highlighting its role in advancing ground-based astronomy technologies and demonstrating that sustained investment leads to significant scientific progress.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive survey of ATI-funded research, emphasizing the long-term nature of technology development and its impact on scientific discoveries.

Findings

Technology development spans beyond individual grants.

Investments in technology yield substantial scientific gains.

ATI program has supported diverse astronomical research advancements.

Abstract

Over its more than thirty-year history, the Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation (ATI) program has provided grants to support technology development for ground-based astronomy. Research from this program has advanced adaptive optics, high resolution and multi-object spectroscopy, optical interferometry and synoptic surveys, to name just a few. Previous and ongoing scientific advances span the entire field of astronomy, from studies of the Sun to the distant universe. Through a combination of literature assessment and individual case studies, we present a survey of ATI funded research for optical-infrared astronomy. We find that technology development unfolds over a time period that is longer than an individual grant. A longitudinal perspective shows that substantial scientific gains have resulted from investments in technology.