Jay Pasachoff in 2014 in front of the dome of the 200" telescope at the Palomar Observatory, which was the largest in the world for almost five decades. Pasachoff took Williams College students to visit the Palomar Observatory as part of a Winter Study Program course. Click on the image for a higher-resolution version.

Jay M. Pasachoff

Director of Hopkins Observatory;
Chair of the Astronomy Department 2014-15;
Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy

at Williams since 1972

Education

Bronx High School of Science H.S. 1959
Harvard College A.B. 1963
Harvard University A.M. 1965
Harvard University

Ph.D. 1969
Harvard College Observatory

postdoc 1969-70
Caltech

postdoc 1970-72

 

2003 Education Prize, American Astronomical Society
2003 Honorary Member, Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
2003-2006 President, Commission on Education and Development of the
International Astronomical Union
current Chair, Working Group on Solar Eclipses
2012 Janssen Medal, Société Astronomique de France
2011-13 Vice-Chair, Historical Astronomy Division, American Astronomical Society; 2013-15, Chair.

Sabbatical and Other Leaves

Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii 1980-81, 1984-85
Institut d'Astrophysique, Paris 1988
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton 1989-90
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics 1993-4
Harvard University Visiting Lecturer in Astronomy, 1993-4
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Visiting Scientist 1993-4
Harvard University: Associate of the Astronomy Dept. Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory: Visiting Scientist 2001-2
California Institute of Technology 2008-9, fall 2012

Visiting Scientist Appointments, not in residence

California Institute of Technology 2010-2011
California Institute of Technology auxiliary appointment, Visitor Fall 2012-2013, 2014-15
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory 2009-2012

Officer and committee member:

President, Commission 46 (Astronomy Education and Development) of the International Astronomical Union (2003-2006); Retiring President (2003-2006); U.S. National Liaison to the Commission and its predecessor, The Teaching of Astronomy, (197-)

Chair, Working Group on Solar Eclipses of the International Astronomical Union

Chair, Program Group on Public Education at the Time of Eclipses and Transits, IAU Commission 46 on Education and Development Member, Johannes Kepler Working Group, IAU Commission 41 on the History of Astronomy

Chair, Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society (2013-15)

Contact Information

See:

www.solarcorona.com for a list of his published books
www.solarcorona.net for the Web page for his astronomy texts

http://thecosmos4.com/

 for Cambridge U. Press Web pages for his text
www.eclipses.info for the Program Group on Public Education at the Times of Eclipses of the International Astronomical Union
www.totalsolareclipse.org 61 past eclipse expeditions
www.eclipses.info for the Working Group on Eclipses of the International Astronomical Union