A Denison graduate working on the Hubble space telescope is the next speaker in the Provost's Alumni Scholar series. John Clarke, class of '74, returns to campus to give a lecture titled "From Barney Science Hall to the Hubble Space Telescope: Reflections of a Denison Alumnus Astrophysicist" at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday (Feb. 27) in Herrick Auditorium. This lecture will be free and open to the public.

With current research interests in planetary atmospheres and ultraviolet astrophysics among others, Clarke has studied the northern lights on Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. He has also launched scientific experiments on sounding rockets at the White Sands Missile Range and observed the impacts of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter with the Hubble Space Telescope. In this lecture, he plans to describe some of his experiences, concentrating on his work with the Hubble and relating his current work with time spent at Denison.

"It seems to have been a surprisingly short journey from a major in physics at Denison to overseeing system-wide science testing of the Hubble Space Telescope as a NASA Project Scientist," Clark remarks. "When I was working homework problems in Barney Hall as a physics major, I could not have imagined how one could go fromto NASA."

After graduating from Denison, Clarke earned his master's and doctoral degrees in physics from the Johns Hopkins University. A member of the American Astronomical Society, the American Geophysical Union and the International Astronomical Union, Clarke received the University of Michigan Research Achievement Award in 1998.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

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