Speakers Bureau

The Speakers Bureau is a service established for people and groups looking for enthusiastic, knowledgeable speakers to provide informative presentations for astronomy clubs, star parties, banquets, Scout Troops, Astronomy Day activities and other public and private astronomy functions. Contact us if you are interested in securing a speaker.

NOTE: As of 2011, many of our speakers are willing and able to do remote talks via Skype or other VOIP applications. This allows us to serve more clubs and functions, and minimizes the costs and travel time involved in giving presentations.

Below is a list of our speakers and the geographic areas they serve.

Raymond Benge
Within 75 miles of Fort Worth, Texas. Greater distances OK with travel expenses agreed upon ahead of time.
Any astronomy topic, any current topic in astronomy. Also, Amateur Astronomy, Basic Astronomy, Is Pluto a Planet?, Asteroids, Space Exploration.

Raymond Benge did his undergraduate work at Duke University and graduate work at Texas A&M University and the University of North Texas. He is currently Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Tarrant County College Northeast Campus, in Hurst, Texas.

Professor Benge has done research with variable stars and has directed a student research project on asteroids, with two of his students discovering an asteroid in 2008. He has also performed a microgravity experiment with NASA aboard a reduced gravity aircraft. He has also written and had published over 30 articles about astronomy and space exploration topics for a variety of encyclopedias targeted at the lay reader. Over the years, he has become quite interested in the history of astronomy and space exploration.

Professor Benge has also hosted a number of star parties in the Fort Worth area. In addition to his duties as a college professor and a public speaker, Raymond also has a presence on the internet as the author of Astroprof.

Tom Bretl
Plymouth, MN (western suburb of Minneapolis), 50 miles
Basic astronomy, observing with small telescopes, variable stars, amateur telescope making

Tom Bretl (home page) is a retired high school math, physics, and astronomy teacher. He has been interested in amateur astronomy since the days of Sputnik, and he has been an active variable star observer since joining the AAVSO in 1975. He wrote a monthly column for Astronomy during the first few years of that magazine's existence, and was an amateur telescope maker during the 1970's. Tom has also developed numerous computer programs designed to encourage his students to explore relationships, discover patterns, and solve problems.

Tim Crawford
Arch Cape, OR (100 miles)
Variable Star Observing (both Visual and CCD); Choosing a CCD Camera for Science; Roll-Off Roof Construction vs. Dome Construction (w/building hints for both); Why We Can't See Colors in DSO's & The Importance of Averted Vision.

Tim Crawford's Bio and a listing of "published" articles as well as recent presentations can be found at his home page. While the 100 mile travel radius from Arrch Cape, OR is pretty much limited to the Northern Oregon coastal zone and the Portland, OR metropolitan area, I am willing to consider the Seattle, WA area upon request. Travel outside of these zones might require overnight lodging, in addition to travel expenses and meals. Please feel "free" to inquire regarding whatever your groups needs might be. Remember: "There is no such thing as a dumb question."

"Per Ardua ad Astra"
(Through adversity to the Stars)

Pamela Gay
Edwardsville, IL (100 miles)
Variable Stars, New Media, EPO

A lifetime stargazer, Dr. Pamela L. Gay has followed her obsession to a profession. Today Dr. Gay is a associate research professor of Physics at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville where she teaches introductory physics and astronomy courses. Teaching by day, she works on astronomy data by night, teaming up with amateur astronomers who are expert observers to study variable stars. In between, she finds time to mentor students working on observational astronomy projects through Swinburne Astronomy online. Podcasting is a creative outlet that brings together her love of astronomy with her passion for teaching, making staying current in an ever-changing field a fun endeavor. You can find her online at astronomycast.com and starstryder.com.

Keith Graham
Joliet, IL (up to 75 miles expense-free but may go further if needed)
Stellar Evolution, Solar System

Keith Graham is a retired high school science teacher who taught astronomy, geology, earth science, and physical science. He has been a member of AAVSO since 1981. He started out as a visual observer and has been a CCD observer since 1999. His interests include doing multi-filter time series of cataclysmic variables, HMXBs, and eclipsing binaries. He currently spends his summers working in Rocky Mountain National Park. His duties include conducting a weekly geology hike for park visitors and running the telescope for a weekly evening star program. He currently gives astronomy and geology PowerPoint presentations to schools and other organizations.

Albert Holm
Columbia, MD (60 miles, ask)
AAVSO & Variable Stars Overview; Hubble Space Telescope; Black Holes, Dark Energy, & Dark Matter; Solar System Science

Originally from Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Albert Holm received his bachelor's degree from Caltech and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has worked on space astronomy missions since 1970, first with the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory-2, then with the International Ultraviolet Explorer, and finally with the Hubble Space Telescope. He currently serves as Branch Chief for Data Processing and Archival Services at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. He carried out research on cataclysmic variables, R CrB stars, and planetary nebulae. He has been happily married for 34 years, and has a son and a daughter.

Kate Hutton
Pasadena, CA (100 miles)
Variable Stars for Beginners

Katherine Hutton has joined the AAVSO twice: once in 1967, and once in 2006. She left variable stars once, to earn a PhD in astronomy (specialty in very long baseline radio interferometry) & travel a circuitous academic route into seismology, where she now earns her living processing earthquake data & sharing it with the general public through the TV news, following any large shake-ups. Eventually, the variable stars called her back, however. She is primarily a visual observer, just starting to teach herself CCD photometry & she participates in the Arne's Star program, which allows AAVSO members to help the Director clear his desk of unanalyzed data. Her special interests include semiregular variables, the supergiants & Wolf-Rayet stars. She is a mentor for new visual observers. She has written pieces for the Eyepiece Views newsletter & some content for the AAVSO web site. She is also in training to be a docent for the Mt. Wilson Observatory.

Roger S. Kolman, PhD
Chicago area suburbs for free
Variable stars and any astronomy related subjects

Roger Kolman has been an active member of the AAVSO since 1962 and was a member of Council in 1999. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Illinois. He has taught physics, mathematics and astronomy at the secondary and college levels for 39 years and teacher education at the graduate level. Currently he teaches astronomy at Harper College in Palatine, Illinois.

In addition to his teaching duties, he was a mentor for the Teachers for Chicago program in which individuals holding non-teaching degrees were brought into education as a career change.

For many years he has been involved with the Astronomical League serving as Vice Chairman and Chairman of the North-Central Region of that organization. He served a term as Secretary of the Astronomical League and for several years was in charge of the Member-At-Large section of the A.L. Since 1980 he has been the chairman of the Leslie C. Peltier Award Committee. He is the author of Observe and Understand Variable Stars which he wrote as a vehicle for attracting new observers to the AAVSO.

He has spoken before many groups on Variable Stars and other astronomical topics.

Tom Krajci
Cloudcroft, NM (2 hr drive)
Photometry, Amateur Science, Amateur Telescope Making

Tom Krajci, Major, USAF (retired), is an amateur scientist specializing in photometry. He operates the Astrokolkhoz Observatory at an elevation of 9,440 feet near Cloudcroft, New Mexico. Tom is translating several books on telescope making and optics design from Russian into English, including the works of Dmitry Maksutov.

Doug Lombardi
Las Vegas, NV (100 miles)
Variable Stars, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory

Doug Lombardi is a regional trainer at the Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program, which offers professional development focused on the content teachers teach. For the past 7 years, he has also served as a volunteer teacher resource agent for the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Education and Public Outreach Program. Doug has ties to other NASA E/PO programs, including the Phoenix Mars Mission, where he managed the mission's educational program for just over two years.

Doug and his wife Janelle have a 8-inch Dobsonian telescope that allows them to observe variable stars and the marquee signs on the Las Vegas Strip. While at a teacher workshop in Hawaii, Doug was taught the basics of observing from none other than Janet Mattei herself. He will be forever grateful to Janet and the AAVSO for giving him the support to explore the universe with students and other teachers.

Mario Motta

Gloucester, MA (100 miles)
AAVSO, general astronomy, and light pollution efforts

Mario Motta, M.D., is a cardiologist in the Partners Health System, based in Salem Massachusetts. He also holds an academic appointment as Associate Professor of Medicine at Tufts Medical School. An advanced amateur astronomer, Mario has built several observatories, and homemade telescopes. He observes from a homebuilt 32 inch telescope from Gloucester , MA the "Wingaersheek Observatory". As a former president of the ATMOB (Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston), he initiated a collaboration between public schools and the ATMOB, with help from the former director of the AAVSO, Dr Mattei. The ATMOB now give over 50 star parties a year in the greater Boston area for school kids, and partner an amateur with a school district.

Mario's interests have been in Galactic evolution, Gamma Ray Bursters, Supernovae, as well as variable Stars. He also gives many talks on Light Pollution issues.

Mario is always happy to share his knowledge and enthusiasm for astronomy with the public. Mario received the "Las Cumbres" award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in 2003 for astronomical outreach, and in 2005 received the "Walter Scott Houston" Award from the astronomical league.

Gordon Myers
Hillsborough, CA (100 miles)
General Astronomy, Comets, Variable Stars, Cataclysmic Variables, Big Bang, Apollo and Shuttle Programs

Gordon Myers is a life-long astronomy enthusiast. He graduated from Caltech and worked with NASA on the Apollo and Space Shuttle Programs. After retiring from a career with IBM, he became an "Earth and Space Explainer" at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Over the last four years he's taken astrophysics courses at Columbia University, and is an active variable star observer using remote telescopes operated over the Internet.

Chuck Pullen
Sacramento, CA (100 miles)
What's VSO, GRB Network

Chuck Pullen teaches astronomy at Sierra College, Sacramento City College, and at Cal State Sacramento. He also works in product development for Optical Structures, Inc., a Sacramento based manufacturer of research grade optics and astronomical telescope systems. An AAVSO member since 1998, he is a skilled CCD and Visual observer. His observational interests includes multimode cepheids, Gamma Ray Bursts, Supernova, RR Lyrae stars, and robotic observatory design and construction. He has developed numerous PowerPoint tutorials on variable star observation techniques, the AAVSO/NASA Gamma Ray Burst Network, and other issues that are featured on the AAVSO Web Page and have been downloaded thousands of times.

Chuck is an entertaining and knowledgeable speaker who has given lectures on the AAVSO and astronomy to dozens of astronomy clubs, star parties, planetariums, and college lecture series groups over the years.

Michael Richmond
Rochester, NY (60 miles)
Any astronomy topic

Michael Richmond did his graduate work on supernovae at U. C. Berkeley, then spent five years as a post-doc on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. He is now a member of the Physics Department at RIT, where he spends most of his time teaching introductory physics courses. In spare moments, he works on the calibration of the proposed SNAP mission, observes cataclysmic variables, and continues to study supernovae with the SDSS and Subaru.

Michael Rupen
Albuquerque, NM (150 miles)
Radio photometry, polarimetry, and imaging of variable sources, Things that go BANG in the night, Radio stars, Imaging stellar death and re-birth, The transient radio sky, Radio telescopes, Accretion and outflow: building structure by throwing away mass, Imaging stellar variables, Astrometry: why precise positions are exciting, High energies and wimpy photons

Michael Rupen received his bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his PhD in astrophysical sciences from Princeton University. Following a postdoctoral position at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, he moved to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, where he has been on the scientific staff since 1992. His research focuses on transient sources and the interstellar medium, primarily involving radio observations with the nation's premier radio telescopes, particularly the Very Large Array and the Very Long Baseline Array. He is also currently the Project Scientist for Software and the WIDAR Correlator for the Expanded Very Large Array (EVLA).

Mike Simonsen
Imlay City, MI (200 miles)
Variable Stars, Visual Observing, Stellar Evolution, Cataclysmic Variables, History of the AAVSO

Mike joined the AAVSO in 1998 and quickly became one of the world’s leading variable star observers, with over 58,000 variable star observations in the AAVSO International Database. As his passion for variable star science grew, so did Mike's involvement with the AAVSO. Mike is coordinator of the AAVSO Mentor Program, Speakers Bureau, Writers Bureau and the AAVSO Cataclysmic Variable Section. His current area of research is Z Cam type of dwarf novae, and he is the author or co-author of more than twenty peer-reviewed papers on cataclysmic variables.

In 2003, Mike was placed in charge of chart production for the AAVSO. He and a team of dedicated volunteers have produced thousands of new comparison star charts and sequences for use by visual and CCD observers. In 2005, Simonsen received the AAVSO’s highest honor, the AAVSO Director's Award. That same year he was elected to his first term on the AAVSO Council, and now serves as Vice President. In 2007, Mike was hired as the organization's first full-time Development Director, in charge of raising funds to ensure the security of the organization's endowments as well as the continuity and growth of the valuable services, programs and staff of the AAVSO.

Mike’s astronomy blog, Simostronomy, is now ranked in the top 40 science blogs on the Internet. He is also a cast member of the popular Slacker Astronomy podcast, a staff writer for Universe Today and has contributed articles to both Sky and Telescope and Astronomy’s online magazines.

An animated and enthusiastic speaker, Mike has gives talks on stellar astronomy and variable star science to astronomy clubs, organizations, conferences and university groups throughout the United States each year.

Mike's observatory, named after legendary AAVSO observer and chart maker, Charles E. Scovil, houses two 12" LX200 telescopes, one for visual use and one for CCD observations, or as Mike likes to joke, "One for each eye!" He is now amassing both visual and CCD observations from home and remote robotic telescopes.

He can present one of the talks listed on this website, or create a custom presentation tailored to your audience. Mr. Simonsen is willing to give presentations free of charge within 200 miles of home. If travel will exceed 200 miles, overnight lodging, travel expenses and a meal are the usual requirements. Each request is considered on an individual basis. A donation of $100.00 payable to AAVSO is always appreciated, but not required.

Arif Solmaz
Throughout Turkey
General Astronomy, Science & Society, Stars & Planets, Astronomical Research, Scientific Understandins, Exoplanets, Astronomy Education and Public Outreach, Astronomy and Space Sciences, Life in the Universe

I'm a Space Sciences and Technologies graduate student at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University (in short COMU) in TURKEY. I graduated physics department at same university. My thesis is about Extrasolar Planets: Status Report & Cataloging. I'm interested in this topic and effects on society. COMU has an astrophysical research centre and observatory, I work there since 2004, and am now IYA2009 coordinator of our observatory. I'm generating a special web site for IYA2009 nation-wide activities and also new astronomy magazine called North Star. I'm editor and designer of this monthly free peer-reviewed magazine. I have a website called Science@NASA TURKEY, translating some scientific news from Science@NASA, The ESA/ESO Astronomy Exercise Series, NASA Space Math and Sun-Earth Day.

Chris Stephan
Sebring, FL (100 miles)
Variable Star Astronomy

Chris Stephan of The Robert Clyde Observatory in Sebring, Florida, has been a variable star observer for the AAVSO since 1973. He has made over 33,000 visual variable star estimates. Chris has been a speaker on variable stars at various astronomy events. He has received the distinguished AAVSO Director's Award in 2004 and had observations published in various international astronomy journals. Chris is also a member of the American Meteor Society and has led or participated in several lunar grazing occultation expedition teams for IOTA. Chris has been a middle school science teacher with Highlands County Schools for 21 years. He is currently teaching at Avon Park Middle School in Avon Park, Florida. Chris has been married for 22 years and has a son in college.

Bob Stine
Newbury Park, CA (50 miles Zip codes: 91320-93283)
Basic Astronomy, Basic Variable Stars, Amateur Astronomy

Robert J. Stine (AAVSO Observer SRB) Born: 8 Feb 1947, Glendale, California Education: High School: Granada Hills High School; graduated 1964 (famous quarterback John Elway is an alumnus who graduated about a decade later) College: BS Physics 1969 California State University at Northridge MS Electrical Engineering University of California Santa Barbara 1978 Career: Navy Flight Test Engineering of airborne weapons systems Current Status: Retired and overweight. Bald too. Family: Wife Christine (38 years), two daughters, five grandsons

Paul Temple