Astronomer in Residence: Dr. Daniel Fleisch

Dan Fleisch is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics at Wittenberg University, where he specializes in electromagnetics and space physics.  He is the author of the internationally best-selling book A Student’s Guide to Maxwell’s Equations, published by Cambridge University Press in January 2008 and translated into Japanese, Korean, Italian, and Chinese.  Dr. Fleisch is also the author of A Student’s Guide to Vectors and Tensors, published by Cambridge Press in 2011, co-author of A Student’s Guide to the Mathematics of Astronomy, published in September of 2013, and A Student’s Guide to Waves, published in June of 2015, and author of A Student's Guide to the Schrödinger Equation, published in 2020.  He is currently writing his sixth Student’s Guide for Cambridge Press.  Dr. Fleisch is also the co-author with the late Prof. John Kraus of The Ohio State University of the McGraw-Hill textbook Electromagnetics with Applications.

As Grand Canyon's fifth Astronomer in Residence, Dan spent his time presenting more than 20 unique public programs on many aspects of astronomy, from moons and planets to cosmology and Black Holes. He reached over 3,000 visitors from his formal programs, and countless more through informal solar-observing sessions, pop-up telescope viewing, and constellation talks along the rim of the Canyon.

Along with his public presentations for Grand Canyon National Park visitors, Dr. Fleisch visited Grand Canyon School to present a program, called "The Grand Tour: A Quick Trip to the Limits of the Known Universe" to the 3rd-5th grade classes. Grand Canyon National Park is the only park with a K-12 school inside its boundaries. We thank Dr. Fleisch for his willingness to reach out to the small community of Grand Canyon, taking time to inspire the next generation of scientists!

Residency Accomplishments

• Provided 20 unique astronomy programs, each followed by an outdoor Sky Tour with a laser pointer, and telescope viewing.
• Reached over 3,000 visitors with his 20 programs, an average on 150 attendees per program, with several nights surpassing 300 visitors.
• Provided several informal solar-observing sessions, telescope viewing, and constellation tours for passersby on the rim of the Canyon.
• Visited Grand Canyon School and provided a talk to the 3rd-5th grade students, inspiring the next generation of scientists.
• Appeared on Lowell Observatory's "Star Stuff" podcast. Watch the full episode here.
• Will be recording all his formal programs and publishing them online. Check back here to see when they are published.