> Astronomers interested in joining the team should speak fluent English and expect to work in the remote location on a long-term basis, according to the job postings. The compensation package totals around $14,400 per year.
> “It’s not surprising they have had difficulties hiring people, given the low pay compared with similar international institutes,” said a chemical physics researcher with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who asked not to be identified.
> They added that an additional problem was that they were looking for contract workers, not permanent staff.
Seems like the issue is not that they can't staff it but rather aren't competitive with other institutes who attract the same talent.
There is no shortage of unemployed academics (including radio astronomers). At that salary, located in rural China, they're not competitive with the local Walmart.
Crazy. It’s not like they’re hurting for a budget either.
> The project has also been searching for a chief scientist, with a pay package of $1.2 million, since late 2017. The post is open to qualified astronomers from any country
There's an interesting parallel to the start of radio astronomy in the United States. Immediately after World War II, the US largely ignored radio astronomy in the 40's and early 50's while the British, Dutch, and Australians turned their experience with radar to astronomy. The US in the early 50's now turned to make up lost time, and through the recently established National Science Foundation (NSF, est. 1950) created the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. The parallel is, that there were no people with the appropriate skills to create an observatory within the US, and they specifically hired one of the world's leading radio astronomers, the Australian Joseph Pawsey, to be the NRAO's first director. Tragically, he died of cancer shortly after beginning the job, but the NRAO went on to pioneer some of the most sensitive radio telescopes ever built, like the Very Large Array.
That’s true for the astronomers who will use the results of the telescopes. But there have to be engineers, technicians and physicists on-site to ensure that the telescope is working well and producing the data that can be used by astronomers downstream.
”The project has also been searching for a chief scientist, with a pay package of $1.2 million, since late 2017. The post is open to qualified astronomers from any country but so far no results of the search have been announced.”
> “It’s not surprising they have had difficulties hiring people, given the low pay compared with similar international institutes,” said a chemical physics researcher with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who asked not to be identified.
> They added that an additional problem was that they were looking for contract workers, not permanent staff.
Seems like the issue is not that they can't staff it but rather aren't competitive with other institutes who attract the same talent.