Jay Pasachoff Receives National Astronomy Award

Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: (413) 597-4277; email: [email protected]

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Jan. 9, 2003–The American Astronomical Society (AAS) will award its 2003 Education Prize to Jay M. Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Hopkins Observatory at Williams College.

Announcement of the award, for “outstanding contributions to the education of the public, of students and/or of the next generation of professional astronomers,” was made Jan. 8 in Seattle at the society’s 201st Meeting. Previous recipients of education awards from the AAS include Carl Sagan, Dorrit Hoffleit, Donald Goldsmith, Fred Hoyle, and Frank Drake.

The citation reads:

For his eloquent and informative writing of textbooks from junior high through college, For his devotion to teaching generations of students, For sharing with the world the joys of observing eclipses, For his many popular books and articles on astronomy, For his intense advocacy on behalf of science education in various forums, For his willingness to go into educational nooks where no astronomer has gone before, the AAS Education Prize is awarded to Jay M. Pasachoff.

He is vice president of the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Commission on Education and Development and is scheduled to assume the presidency this summer at the union’s General Assembly in Sydney. A two-time former chair of the Astronomy Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he is currently chair of the IAU’s Working Group on Eclipses and has observed 35 solar eclipses, to which he typically leads scientific expeditions that prominently include undergraduate students.

Pasachoff is the author of the “Peterson Field Guide to the Stars and Planets” in addition to widely used astronomy texts. He is co-author, with Leon Golub, of the trade book “Nearest Star: The Surprising Science of Our Sun,” published in 2001 by Harvard University Press.

He has spoken about eclipses and astronomy in general to countless groups around the world, from elementary school students to adults. He earned his A.B. and Ph.D. from Harvard University, was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard and CalTech, and has taught at Williams since 1972.

END

Published January 9, 2003