Research activity in astronomy and astrophysics at Columbia University has recently undergone a major expansion with the allocation of substantial new resources to the Departments of Physics and Astronomy: Nine new faculty members have been hired during the past five years, over $2 million has been spent or committed for building renovation and another $0.4 M has been awarded in startup money for the new faculty. In addition, the University has agreed to allot $320,000 in 2:1 matching funds toward the purchase and installation of a modern computing facility to support the varied research programs of its young faculty. This award provides the remaining 1/3 of the funds required to complete the acquisition of this system. Major science projects which necessitate the CONVEX-based facility are already underway; these include a complete volume-limited HI survey fo the Hydra cluster of galaxies and a number of other large aperture synthesis spectral line projects conducted by the PI, a survey of the Galactic plane at 327 MHz which exceeds all previous surveys be a factor of more than 30 in both resolution and sensitivity, analysis of several hundred echelle spectra of K giants and extensive crowded-field photometry in the Galactic bulge as part of a larger program directed at unravelling the chemical and dynamical evolution of the Galaxy, analysis of other extensive data sets including high-resolution optical spectra of white dwarfs, emission line regions of active galactic nuclei, and quasar absorption line systems, and several theoretical projects related to time-dependent convection in stars, numerical studies in the formation and evolution of galaxies, and the investigation of a novel approach to thermal instabilities in the interstellar medium. The research computing facility is essential for the conduct of much of this research program.
