Reflecting on Space and Time with Stories of Astronomy and Hunting

DRC After Hours Sponsor: Shannon Duncan

Jeff Wilkerson is a Professor of Physics at Luther College. In addition to his extensive research and teaching, he is an accomplished author and plans to present excerpts from his book 23 Woodcock in 22 Years: Reflections on Hunting, the Night Sky and Our Place in the Universe, highlighting the passage of time as both birds and the stars overhead come and go season after season. He will lead our members in discussing the behavior of birds, stars as the origin of the material around us, the nature of our Milky Way galaxy, the history of the universe, and what can be observed in the night sky right now.

Dr. Wilkerson earned a B.S. in physics from Indiana University and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley. He has previously worked on projects searching antimatter heavy nuclei in cosmic rays and developing detector technology for studying X-rays from neutron stars and black holes. For the past 28 years he has served on the faculty at Luther where he has taught a wide range of astronomy and physics courses, supervised more than 60 undergraduate research projects involving the monitoring of stellar brightness, and has served in a variety of administrative positions. In addition to numerous research publications and presentations, he has authored two books and presents a weekly, public YouTube video on night sky observing.

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