Work
Pasachoff observes with a wide variety of ground-based telescopes and spacecraft, and reports on those activities in writing his texts. Pasachoff is especially known for his scientific work at total solar eclipses. Annular solar eclipse of 20 May 2012: his 55th; total solar eclipse of 14 November 2012: his 56th. He has championed the continued contemporary scientific value of solar-eclipse research. His research has been sponsored by the National Science Foundation, NASA, and the National Geographic Society. He is Chair of the Working Group on Eclipses of the International Astronomical Union and of a Program Group on Public Education at the Times of Solar Eclipses. His solar work also includes studies of the solar chromosphere, backed by NASA grants, using NASA spacecraft and the Swedish Solar Telescope on La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain. He has collaborated with a professor of art history, Roberta J. M. Olson of the New-York Historical Society, on astronomical images in the art of Renaissance Italy and of Great Britain.
Pasachoff received the 2003 Education Prize of the American Astronomical Society, "For his eloquent and informative writing of textbooks from junior high through college, For his devotion to teaching generations of students, For sharing with the world the joys of observing eclipses, For his many popular books and articles on astronomy, For his intense advocacy on behalf of science education in various forums, For his willingness to go into educational nooks where no astronomer has gone before, the AAS Education Prize is awarded to Jay M. Pasachoff." Asteroid 5100 Pasachoff recognizes Pasachoff's astronomical accomplishments. In addition to his college astronomy texts, Pasachoff has written a field guide to the stars and planets, and is author or coauthor of textbooks in calculus and in physics, as well as several junior-high-school textbooks.
He is a collaborator, backed by NASA grants, with a group of scientists from Williams College and MIT observing the atmospheres of outer planets and their moons, including Pluto, its moon Charon, Neptune’s moon Triton, and other objects in the outer solar system. He also makes radio astronomy observations of the interstellar medium, concentrating on deuterium and its cosmological implications.
Pasachoff has been active in educational and curriculum matters. He is U.S. National Liaison to and was President (2003–2006) of the Commission on Education and Development of the International Astronomical Union, has twice been Chair of the Astronomy Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has been on the astronomy committees of the American Astronomical Society (and its representative 2004-2013 to the AAAS), the American Physical Society, and the American Association of Physics Teachers. He is on the Council of Advisors of the Astronomy Education Review. He has spearheaded a discussion of what should be taught in astronomy courses, championing the position of including and emphasizing contemporary astronomy. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the International Planetarium Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and the Royal Astronomical Society, and he has held a Getty Fellowship. He has lectured widely, including a stint as a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer. He is also Director of the Hopkins Observatory and past and current (2010–2012) Chair of the Astronomy Department at Williams.
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