June 07, 2016
Media Advisory – Eclipse News Conference
Reporters, photographers and camera crews are welcome to cover a news conference regarding the planning for the 2017 solar eclipse on Friday, June 10, at 1 p.m. in Student Center Ballroom A. The news conference is being held in conjunction with the American Astronomical Society’s Eclipse 2017 workshop, hosted by SIU on June 10-11. More information about the workshop is available here.
Speakers at the news conference will include Interim Chancellor Brad Colwell and four leading members of the astronomy community who will discuss several aspects of the eclipse, including its uniqueness and its scientific value:
- Shadia Habbal is an astronomer and faculty chair at the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy. She has led 10 eclipse expeditions around the world.
- Angela Speck is the director of astronomy and professor of astrophysics at the University of Missouri. She also is the chair of the Diversity Enhancement Committee within the university’s faculty governance structure.
- Lou Mayo is a planetary scientist and program manager working for ADNET Systems at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and a professor of astronomy at Marymount University. He has more than 25 years of experience supporting NASA space and Earth science missions and data systems.
- Fred Espenak, known as “Mr. Eclipse” to his many fans, is a retired astrophysicist from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and maintains NASA’s official eclipse website. He has participated in 34 eclipse expeditions around the world. In 2003, the International Astronomical Union named an asteroid for him.
More information about the Aug. 21, 2017, eclipse – the first one to cross the continental United States since 1979 -- is available at eclipse.siu.edu. SIU is the closest university and Carbondale the closest city to the point of greatest duration of the eclipse.