Universe, The by Preiss, Byron, Ed.
Andrew Fraknoi has devoted most of his professional career to helping students, teachers, and the public to understand more about our exploration of the universe. He is the Chair of the Astronomy Department at Foothill College, near San Francisco, where he teaches courses on astronomy and physics "for poets" to more than 900 students each year. He is also Senior Educator at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, an international scientific and educational organization, founded in 1889 and devoted to sharing the excitement of astronomy with the public.
From 1978 to 1992, Fraknoi was the Executive Director of the Society, and created "The Universe in the Classroom" (its newsletter for teachers) and Project ASTRO (a national) program to link volunteer astronomers with 4th - 9th grade classrooms. Family ASTRO, which he also founded, is a more recent project to bring hands-on astronomy activities and games to families around the world.
For over 25 years, he has served on the Board of Trustees of the SETI Institute, a scientific and educational organization devoted to the search for life elsewhere in the universe. He is currently Vice-Chair of the Board and served as one of the organizers for SETICon 2010, a national convention on the search for extra-terrestrial life in fact and fiction.
Fraknoi is the lead author of a series of non-technical introductory astronomy textbooks at the college level, the author (with the help of his son) of a children's book on astronomy, and co-editor of two books of science fact and science fiction (published in the 1980's). He is also a founding editor of "Astronomy Education Review" -- an online journal and magazine for those who teach astronomy, now published by the American Astronomical Society.
He was selected as the California Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Endowment for Higher Education and received the Gemant Prize of the American Institute of Physics (also won by Stephen Hawking) for a lifetime of contributions to the popularization of physics. The International Astronomical Union has named asteroid 4859 Asteroid Fraknoi in recognition of his work in public education and outreach.
For more on Fraknoi's work and publications, see: http://www.foothill.edu/ast/fraknoi.php
For Fraknoi's blog, see: http://fraknoi.blogspot.com
For Fraknoi's Facebook page: see: http://www.facebook.com/Fraknoi
