To kick off the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Swasey Observatory, Steven W. Squyres, Cornell University professor of astronomy and principal investigator for the Mars Exploration Rover Project, will lecture on “Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red Planet,” at 8 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 12, in Swasey Chapel (200 Chapel Drive). The lecture, part of the Anderson Lecture Series, is free and open to the public.

Specializing in planetary sciences, Squyres’s research analyzes solid bodies of the solar system, such as terrestrial planets, using data from spacecraft, ground-based telescopes, and geophysical modeling. Squyres focuses on the tectonics of Venus, the history of water on Mars, and the geophysics of the icy satellites of the outer planets.

As the Goldwin Smith professor of astronomy, he has worked with several planetary spaceflight missions, including, the Voyager imaging science team, the Magellan mission to Venus, and currently, the Mars Express mission and the Mars reconnaissance Orbiter’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment.

Squyres’s extraterrestrial expertise has drawn national attention, and he has won the Benjamin Franklin Medal for Earth and Environmental Science, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Space Science Award, the American Astronautical Society Carl Sagan Memorial Award, and the National Space Society Wernher von Braun Memorial Award.

The Anderson Lectures, established by the late J. Reid and Polly Anderson, are an on-going series of all-college presentations aimed at elevating the general understanding of the natural sciences, mathematics and technologies.

Calendar Listing:

CALENDAR LISTING: Denison University, Granville—Anderson Lecture Series speaker: Steven W. Squyres, director of the Mars Rovers mission and professor of astronomy, at 8 p.m. on Mon., Oct. 12, in the Swasey Chapel (200 Chapel Drive). Free and open to the public. For more information, contact 740-587-6223, or visit www.denison.edu.

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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