Richard S. Post (Council member: 2016-2017)
"After getting a BS in Eng. Physics from UC Berkeley, I taught physics and physics education in Bogota, Colombia, as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Afterwards, I went to Columbia University for PhD in Applied Physics focusing on plasmas. I was an Associate Professor in Nuclear Engineering at University of Wisconsin, Madison working in plasma physics, fusion, and plasma-material interaction. In 1981, I moved my research to MIT, joining the Plasma Science and Fusion Center where I lead the TARA group in a large mirror confinement experiment using 24MW of utility power not available in Madison. As fusion funding began to decline, three of us finished the experiment and started Applied Science and Technology, Inc., ASTeX, selling a product line of reactive gas generators to semiconductor equipment companies. ASTeX went public in 1993, a time before Sarbanes-Oxley, when a small <$100M in revenue high tech equipment company could IPO. In 2001, we merged with MKS Instruments to reduce the cost of global operations and diversify the customer base. That year, with investors, I started NEXX Systems, this time to build semiconductor production tools focused on packaging chips for cell phones. The iPhone created the market for NEXX’s success. Every part in your phone was processed by ASTeX generators or packaged using NEXX System tools. In 2012, NEXX Systems was sold to Tokyo Electron to get the infrastructure and size to support Intel and Japanese companies. At this point, I retired. Bought an 8” telescope and viewed my fist galaxy with my own eyes. I was hooked. In Maine where we have a vacation home, I set up an observatory with a PlaneWave CDK17. A few years later, I added a CDK24 in NM and one at Sierra Remote Observatories. All are run remotely using ACP. My focus is on the ultimate variable star – supernova - with search, photometry, and spectroscopy of bright SNs. I work with the Puckett Supernova Search, and ASAS-SN of Ohio State University.
I joined AAVSO to learn how amateurs can produce data which can be used in professional research. It has been a great experience for me. I see members very committed to the organization and are all continuing to learn and seeking to expand their capability. I would like to add my experience of 25 years as Chairman of the Board of private and public companies. On these boards we sought to recruit board members with certain skills – finance, global operations, established contact with the customer base, and critically important, the ability to assist with funding the company. Fast growing equipment companies like ours with 50% compound growth rates use up more cash than they can generate even when they are profitable. I see the need for AAVSO to have similar goals for council members. What are the skill sets required – finance, operations which includes IT, marketing, knowledge of the customer base, and the ability to help raise money? The AAVSO board should seek to find council members with these skills. I would like to participate in this process of expanding the board skill set. What is the purpose of a board? One of my very successful board members told me a board is to help the CEO, approve the budget, make sure the CEO is doing a good job, and not to run the company. His statement is a good base line for evaluating Council’s success and the contribution of each individual member. One may think that non-profits are somehow different from for-profit companies. However, both are social organizations which assemble for a common purpose. They must excel in their goal or they will vanish.
I am on the AAVSOnet taskforce to provide options for the council on how AAVSOnet can continue on minimal budget and have been looking for ways that AAVSO might contribute to STEM education using AAVSOnet assets. STEM education is an area with Stella has identified she would like AAVSO to make a contribution."