Tom English ’82 will present the 20th Sheridan A. Simon Lecture Friday, March 14, on “new astronomy” techniques employed during four solar eclipses in the late 19th century. The lecture is part of Guilford’s biennial Physics Reunion.
Tom, a Physics professor and Astronomy instructor at Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown, N.C., will speak at 5 pm in Joseph M. Bryan Jr. ’60 Auditorium of the Frank Family Science Center. The public may join reunion participants for the program.
In his talk, "Faith in the Future: Nineteenth Century Eclipse Chasing and the Struggle to Understand the Sun," he plans to discuss how pioneering astrophysicists used emerging techniques of spectroscopy and photography to explore objects in the cosmos.
The sun was a laboratory for those astrophysicists, and its mysteries could be revealed during the moments when its outer layers were exposed during total solar eclipses. Four eclipses between 1869 and 1900 provided 9 and a half minutes to employ the new techniques.
Tom grew up in the Triad area and earned his bachelor’s degree in Physics at Guilford. He completed a master’s degree at the University of Georgia, with a thesis involving computer modelling of atom-ion interactions in interstellar clouds.
“I'm old enough to be a child of the Apollo programs. They were going to the moon when I was in elementary school,” he says. “I was a little science nerd kid in general, but space was really fascinating to me. People don't realize now how pervasive that whole space program was. Very quickly, I latched on to actual deep space, and so through school and college, I knew that was something I was really interested in.”
Tom has taught undergraduate Physics and Astronomy and directed observatory outreach programs for 36 years, first at Gardner-Webb University (N.C.) and then at GTCC. Regularly on Fridays, he coordinates public viewings at the Cline Observatory at GTCC, established, as was the observatory at Guilford, through the generosity of J. Donald Cline ’78.
Sheridan Simon, for whom the “Faith in the Future” lecture series is named, was Jefferson-Pilot Professor of Physics at Guilford, and was on faculty from 1974 until his death in 1994 after a short but intense battle with cancer.
Fifty or more Guilford graduates with degrees in Physics and Mathematics are expected to participate in the biennial reunion March 14-15, which will include presentations by alumni as well as social activities. Registration is available online.