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I
have been an amateur astronomer for nine years and while
I find most everything about space to be extremely fascinating,
the other half of my excitement stems from sharing the
wonders of astronomy with others. And although I am
very content with my occupation conducting research
in the areas of cancer and HIV, I feel that my real
calling is in education. I am thirty seven years old
and I want to be a teacher when I grow up! I have three
boys eight and under and my wife is also going to be
an educator.
Already
having embraced astronomy, some of my most memorable
experiences have been watching, in real time through
a telescope, the impacts of comet Shoemaker-Levy on
Jupiter, spending a very memorable July 4th watching
and listening as the Mars Pathfinder mission bounced
down on the surface of Mars, and looking at the light
from a celestial object enter a child's eye as she peers
through one of my telescopes. How about recording meteor
observations and sending them in to be included in an
international meteor shower count? And what about the
now frequent discoveries of extrasolar planets? With
the current and proposed missions for space exploration,
the public has nothing but very exciting discoveries
to look forward to.
Some
of the events that I am planning for this year include
many school lectures, inflatable planetarium shows,
and campground lectures and star parties. Besides star
parties at schools, I also will host a star party at
a shelter for abused and neglected children and for
our elderly citizens in assisted living residences.
Really, the sky is the limit!
I
am now conducting gene expression research in the fields
of gene therapy and toxicology.
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