Retired faculty and planetarium director
Univ of Colorado, Colorado, United States
Dr. Douglas Duncan is an astronomer at the University of Colorado. From 2002-2018 he directed Fiske Planetarium, leading it to be the most advanced planetarium in the US. Duncan earned degrees at Caltech and the Univ. of California Santa Cruz. He was part of the project that first found sunspot cycles on other stars. Subsequently he joined the staff of the Hubble Space Telescope. In 1992 he accepted a joint appointment at the University of Chicago and the Adler Planetarium, beginning a trend of modernization of planetariums which has spread to New York, Denver, Los Angeles, and now Boulder Colorado.
Duncan is well known as a popularizer of astronomy. From 1997-2002 he did science commentary on the Chicago Public Radio station WBEZ and he is now heard on the Colorado Public Radio program “Colorado Matters.” In 2011 he received the prestigious Richard Emmons award presented to the “Outstanding University Astronomy Teacher in the US.” He has a grant from NASA to produce and nationally distribute videos highlighting NASA’s varied missions and encouraging young people in space-related careers.
Dr. Duncan has served as National Education Coordinator for the AAS. His work has been funded by NSF, NASA, tthe Smithsonian, and National Geographic. He wrote the first book on how to teach effectively with “clickers”. His research on correlation between student texting and grades shows that 75% of university students text and their grades are 4-5% lower!
Duncan leads trips throughout the world to watch total eclipses of the sun and to see the northern lights. In 2017 he helped arrange for 7000 libraries to have millions of safe eclipse watching glasses. In 2024 he will lead an event “Totality over Texas.” In 1991 Duncan travelled to the North Pole and was elected to The Explorer’s Club of New York City.
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Friday, December 9, 2022
3:30 PM – 4:20 PM PT