Universe Solar System, Stars & Galaxies

Mike Seeds has been a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, since 1970. In 1989 he received F&M College’s Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. Mike’s love for the history of astronomy led him to create upper-level courses on archaeoastronomy and changing concepts of the universe. His research interests focus on variable stars and the automation of astronomical telescopes. Mike is coauthor with Dana Backman of Foundations of Astronomy, Eleventh Edition (2010); Stars and Galaxies, Seventh Edition (2010); The Solar System, Seventh Edition (2010); and ASTRO (2010), all published by Cengage Learning. He was Senior Consultant for creation of the 20-episode telecourse accompanying the book Horizons: Exploring the Universe. Dana Backman taught in the physics and astronomy department at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, from 1991 until 2003. He invented and taught a course titled “Life in the Universe” in F&M’s interdisciplinary Foundations program. Dana now teaches introductory astronomy, astrobiology, and cosmology courses in Stanford University’s Continuing Studies Program. His research interests focus on infrared observations of planet formation, models of debris disks around nearby stars, and the evolution of the solar system’s Kuiper belt. Dana is employed by the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, as the manager of Outreach (education, public outreach, and media relations) for NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) at NASA’s Ames Research Center. Dana is coauthor with Mike Seeds of Foundations of Astronomy, Eleventh Edition (2010); Stars and Galaxies, Seventh Edition (2010); The Solar System, Seventh Edition (2010); and ASTRO (2010), all published by Cengage Learning.