Pearson eText The Cosmic Perspective -- Access Card

About Jeffrey BennettMark VoitMegan DonahueNicholas Schneider

Jeffrey Bennett a recipient of the American Institute of Physics Science Communication Award holds a B.A. in biophysics (UC San Diego) and an M.S. and Ph.D. in astrophysics (University of Colorado). He specializes in science and math education and has taught at every level from preschool through graduate school. Career highlights including serving 2 years as a visiting senior scientist at NASA headquarters where he developed programs to build stronger links between research and education and proposing and helping to develop the Voyage scale model solar system on the National Mall (Washington DC). He is the lead author of textbooks in astronomy astrobiology mathematics and statistics and of critically acclaimed books for the public including Beyond UFOs (Princeton University Press 2008/2011) Math for Life (Big Kid Science 2014) What Is Relativity? (Columbia University Press 2014) and On Teaching Science (Big Kid Science 2014). In 2014 his five childrens books (Max Goes to the Space Station Max Goes to the Moon Max Goes to Mars Max Goes to Jupiter and The Wizard Who Saved the World) became the first books launched to the International Space Station for the Story Time From Space program. He and his family live in Boulder Colorado. His personal website is www.jeffreybennett.com.   Megan Donahue is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Michigan State University and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Her current research is mainly about using X-ray UV infrared and visible light to study clusters of galaxies: their contentsdark matter hot gas galaxies active galactic nucleiand what they reveal about the contents of the universe and how galaxies form and evolve. She grew up on a farm in Nebraska and received an S.B. in physics from MIT where she began her research career as an X-ray astronomer. She has a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Colorado. Her Ph.D. thesis on theory and optical observations of intergalactic and intracluster gas won the 1993 Trumpler Award from the Astronomical Society for the Pacific for an outstanding astrophysics doctoral dissertation in North America. She continued postdoctoral research as a Carnegie Fellow at Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena California and later as an STScI Fellow at Space Telescope. Megan was a staff astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute until 2003 when she joined the MSU faculty. Megan is married to Mark Voit and they collaborate on many projects including this textbook and the raising of their children Michaela Sebastian and Angela. Between the births of Sebastian and Angela Megan qualified for and ran the Boston Marathon. These days Megan runs trails orienteers and plays piano and bass guitar whenever her children allow it.   Nicholas Schneider is an associate professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado and a researcher in the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. He received his B.A. in physics and astronomy from Dartmouth College in 1979 and his Ph.D. in planetary science from the University of Arizona in 1988. In 1991 he received the National Science Foundations Presidential Young Investigator Award. His research interests include planetary atmospheres and planetary astronomy. One research focus is the odd case of Jupiters moon Io. Another is the mystery of Marss lost atmosphere which he hopes to answer by serving as science lead on the Imaging UV Spectrograph on NASAs MAVEN mission. Nick enjoys teaching at all levels and is active in efforts to improve undergraduate astronomy education. In 2010 he received the Boulder Faculty Assemblys Teaching Excellence Award. Off the job Nick enjoys exploring the outdoors with his family and figuring out how things work.   Mark Voit is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies in the College of Natural Science at Michigan State University. He earned his A.B. in astrophysical sciences at Princeton University and his Ph.D. in astrophysics at the University of Colorado in 1990. He continued his studies at the California Institute of Technology where he was a research fellow in theoretical astrophysics and then moved on to Johns Hopkins University as a Hubble Fellow. Before going to Michigan State Mark worked in the Office of Public Outreach at the Space Telescope where he developed museum exhibitions about the Hubble Space Telescope and helped design NASAs award-winning HubbleSite. His research interests range from interstellar processes in our own galaxy to the clustering of galaxies in the early universe and he is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is married to coauthor Megan Donahue and cooks terrific meals for her and their three children. Mark likes getting outdoors whenever possible and particularly enjoys running mountain biking canoeing orienteering and adventure racing. He is also author of the popular book Hubble Space Telescope: New Views of the Universe.