Preface  (Page 4/4)

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About the authors

Senior contributing authors

Andrew Fraknoi, Foothill College
Andrew Fraknoi is Chair of the Astronomy Department at Foothill College and served as the Executive Director of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific from 1978–1992. His work with the society included editing Mercury Magazine, Universe in the Classroom , and Astronomy Beat . He’s taught at San Francisco State University, Canada College, and the University of California Extension. He is editor/co-author of The Universe at Your Fingertips 2.0, a collection of teaching activities, and co-author of Solar Science, a book for middle-school teachers. He was co-author of a syndicated newspaper column on astronomy, and appears regularly on local and national radio. With Sidney Wolff, he was founder of Astronomy Education Review . He serves on the Board of Trustees of the SETI Institute and on the Lick Observatory Council. In addition, he has organized six national symposia on teaching introductory astronomy. He received the Klumpke-Roberts Prize of the ASP, the Gemant Award of the American Institute of Physics, and the Faraday Award of the NSTA.

David Morrison, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
David Morrison is a Senior Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. He received his PhD in astronomy from Harvard, where he was one of Carl Sagan’s graduate students. He is a founder of the field of astrobiology and is known for research on small bodies in the solar system. He spent 17 years at University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy and the Department of Physics and Astronomy. He was Director of the IRTF at Mauna Kea Observatory. Morrison has held senior NASA positions including Chief of the Ames Space Science Division and founding Director of the Lunar Science Institute. He’s been on science teams for the Voyager, Galileo, and Kepler missions. Morrison received NASA Outstanding Leadership Medals and the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal. He was awarded the AAS Carl Sagan medal and the ASP Klumpke-Roberts prize. Committed to the struggle against pseudoscience, he serves as Contributing Editor of Skeptical Inquirer and on the Advisory Council of the National Center for Science Education.

Sidney C. Wolff, National Optical Astronomy Observatories (Emeritus)
After receiving her PhD from the UC Berkeley, Dr. Wolff was involved with the astronomical development of Mauna Kea. In 1984, she became the Director of Kitt Peak National Observatory, and was director of National Optical Astronomy Observatory. Most recently, she led the design and development of the 8.4-meter Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. Dr. Wolff has published over ninety refereed papers on star formation and stellar atmospheres. She has served as President of the AAS and the ASP. Her recently published book, The Boundless Universe: Astronomy in the New Age of Discovery , won the 2016 IPPY (Independent Publisher Book Awards) Silver Medal in Science.

All three senior contributing authors have received the Education Prize of the American Astronomical Society and have had an asteroid named after them by the International Astronomical Union. They have worked together on a series of astronomy textbooks over the past two decades.

Contributing authors

John Beck, Stanford University
Susan D. Benecchi, Planetary Science Institute
John Bochanski, Rider University
Howard Bond, Pennsylvania State University, Emeritus, Space Telescope Science Institute
Jennifer Carson, Occidental College
Bryan Dunne, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Martin Elvis, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Debra Fischer, Yale University
Heidi Hammel, Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy
Tori Hoehler, NASA Ames Research Center
Douglas Ingram, Texas Christian University
Steven Kawaler, Iowa State University
Lloyd Knox, University of California, Davis
Mark Krumholz, Australian National University
James Lowenthal, Smith College
Siobahn Morgan, University of Northern Iowa
Daniel Perley, California Institute of Technology
Claire Raftery, National Solar Observatory
Deborah Scherrer, retired, Stanford University
Phillip Scherrer, Stanford University
Sanjoy Som, Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, NASA Ames Research Center
Wes Tobin, Indiana University East
William H. Waller, retired, Tufts University, Rockport (MA) Public Schools
Todd Young, Wayne State College

Reviewers

Elisabeth R. Adams, Planetary Science Institute
Alfred N. Alaniz, San Antonio College
Charles Allison, Texas A&M University–Kingsville
Douglas Arion, Carthage College
Timothy Barker, Wheaton College
Marshall Bartlett, The Hockaday School
Charles Benesh, Wesleyan College
Gerald B. Cleaver, Baylor University
Kristi Concannon, King’s College
Anthony Crider, Elon University
Scott Engle, Villanova University
Matthew Fillingim, University of California, Berkeley
Robert Fisher, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
Carrie Fitzgerald, Montgomery College
Christopher Fuse, Rollins College
Shila Garg, Emeritus, The College of Wooster
Richard Gelderman, Western Kentucky University
Lee Hartman, University of Michigan
Beth Hufnagel, Anne Arundel Community College
Francine Jackson, Brown University
Joseph Jensen, Utah Valley University
John Kielkopf, University of Louisville
James C. Lombardi, Jr., Allegheny College
Amy Lovell, Agnes Scott College
Charles Niederriter, Gustavus Adolphus College
Richard Olenick, University of Dallas
Matthew Olmstead, King’s College
Zoran Pazameta, Eastern Connecticut State University
David Quesada, Saint Thomas University
Valerie A. Rapson, Dudley Observatory
Joseph Ribaudo, Utica College
Dean Richardson, Xavier University of Louisiana
Andrew Rivers, Northwestern University
Marc Sher, College of William&Mary
Christopher Sirola, University of Southern Mississippi
Ran Sivron, Baker University
J. Allyn Smith, Austin Peay State University
Jason Smolinski, Calvin College
Michele Thornley, Bucknell University
Richard Webb, Union College
Terry Willis, Chesapeake College
David Wood, San Antonio College
Jeremy Wood, Hazard Community and Technical College
Jared Workman, Colorado Mesa University
Kaisa E. Young, Nicholls State University