Dr. William Romanishin
Professor of Physics and Astronomy
University of Oklahoma |
Dr. Romanishin
is a Professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department at the University
of Oklahoma, where he has been on the faculty since 1989. As a teenager
back in Pennsylvania, he made several telescopes, including grinding and
figuring two mirrors. After attending Harvard University, graduating with
a degree in astronomy, he received his PhD in astronomy in 1980 from the
University of Arizona in Tucson. After graduating from Arizona, he had
temporary faculty or research jobs at UCLA, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,
and the Arizona State University before settling in Oklahoma.
He has studied a large variety
of celestial objects over the past several decades, from asteroids to quasars.
For the past 7 years, he has mainly studied Kuiper Belt Objects, objects
on the outer fringe of our own solar system. So far in the KBO project,
he and his collaborator Steve Tegler (Northern Arizona University) have
spent over 120 nights on large research telescopes in Arizona and Hawaii.
This includes a dozen nights using one of the Keck 10 meter telescopes
on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. |
Dr. P. Clay Sherrod
Arkansas Sky Observatory |
Dr.
Clay Sherrod has devoted over three decades to the advancement of public
knowledge and appreciation of the pure and applied sciences. Now retired
but continuing private research and outreach programs, Sherrod has published
hundreds of papers and documents in scientific journals and publications
worldwide plus numerous books in archeology, meteorology and climatology,
archeoastronomy, astronomy and biomedical research. Dr. Sherrod is
noted for his images of comets and other astronomy events that appear on
SpaceWeather.com. He recently observed 19 comets in a single night. Dr.
Sherrod will be sharing tips on imaging the great 2003 MARS opposition. |
|
Dr. David Lien
Visiting Professor of Physics
Oklahoma State University |
An
astronomer and educator on the collegiate level for over twenty years.
Dr. Lien brings energy and enthusiasm to physics and astronomy instruction
in various capacities at numerous colleges and universities. His research
is varied and includes such topics as: Gas and dust in comets and in diffuse
interstellar clouds, theoretical and experimental analysis of light scattering
by small, non-spherical particles, science education, and meteorological
optics. Dr. Lien will be presenting his current research on computer modeling
of comet tails. This presentation will connect cometary observations of
amateur and professionals alike with principles of theoretical astrophysics
in an understandable clear fashion. |