In the run-up to the March for Science in April, 2017, the American Geophysical Union, a leading organization of over 60,000 Earth and space scientists worldwide, published 29 “commentaries” in a special collection outlining the important of Earth and space sciences to humanity. WVU Physics and Astronomy Associate Professor Paul Cassak was asked to be the lead author on one of these commentaries.The motivation for the commentaries is described in an online article.Dr. Cassak’s commentary was entitled “Space Physics and Policy for Contemporary Society” and was coauthored by a collection of luminaries in the field of space physics. The commentary....
On August 21, 2017 West Virginians were treated to up to 90% coverage of the Sun
by the Moon during the "The Great American Eclipse." Dr. Kathryn Williamson and
Dr. Amy Keesee received grants from WVU for Community Engagement and from the WV
Space Grant Consortium for K-12 Teacher professional development to prepare teachers,
students, and the public for this historic event. Together with Extension Service,
the Green Bank Observatory, and additional support from the West Virginia Space
Grant Consortium, we took a multi-faceted approach to engage a wide range of audiences,
including:
The planetarium has seen record attendance levels this past year, engaging over 5,000 visitors, largely thanks to graduate students Aaron Weaver and Megan Jones. We added two new shows to our collection: “Earth, Moon, and Sun” is great for meeting science standards with school groups, and “From Earth to the Universe” is a beautiful, up-to-date exploration of our universe.In September and October, we are participating in the WVU Campus Read events with a feature introduction “Hidden Figures in the Stars” to celebrate the contributions of West Virginia native Katherine Johnson to NASA and the space race. The Hidden Figures intro....
Matteo Luisi received the Dr. Mohindar S. Seehra Research
Award “in recognition of doctoral student who is advancing research in physics
by publishing research in high-quality peer-reviewed physics journals”.
