Ken Hudson
(Council member 2018-2020)
Political Science, B.S., UCLA
Ken is a retired information technology (IT) professional and an amateur astronomer. During his career he was a software developer, database administrator and pre-sales database technical consultant. He worked for many organizations including General Dynamics, Oracle Corporation and Terradata. He also started two software development companies.
When he retired, Ken moved to New Mexico to build an observatory and pursue his goal of contributing to pro / am collaborations in the area of astronomical spectroscopy and citizen science in general. He has contributed to the Be Star Spectra (BeSS) database and he participated in the BeSS Anniversary Workshop in Paris (Meudon) to plan for the next 10 years of BeSS activity. Ken has also assisted with planning and testing activities for the upcoming AAVSO spectroscopy database including review of the AAVSO Spectroscopy Manual. Ken is currently assisting David Whelan at Austin College in Sherman, TX with some of his research. Last year Ken and his colleague Joe Daglen organized and presented the first Sacramento Mountains Spectroscopy Workshop in Mayhill, NM. Ken and Joe are currently organizing SMSW-2 to be held in Las Cruces, NM on Feb 22, 23 and 24, 2019.
Ken believes we are living in a golden age of astronomy. The opportunities open to today’s astronomers are many and varied. This is great, but it does mean that people have many options and the AAVSO isn’t the only game in town. In addition, technology is changing rapidly. How do we stay relevant in the age of big data? How do we attract new members? How do we increase the diversity of our membership? How do we remain flexible? Ken is looking forward to working together with the other members of the AAVSO to tackle these issues and continue moving the AAVSO forward.