July 17, 2025
SIU faculty, staff and students involved in Emmy-winning documentary
CARBONDALE, Ill. – A NASA television documentary of a live eclipse broadcast, which included heavy participation by SIU students, faculty and staff, has won an Emmy for Outstanding Live News Special.
The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences made the presentation during its 46th annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards in June. The program involved coverage of the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse in Southern Illinois and SIU’s participation and showcase of the celestial event.
“SIU made significant contributions to this program, including student-operated telescope feeds and the NASA EDGE live segments from the Saluki Stadium,” said Bob Baer, associate scientist in the School of Physics and Applied Physics and one of the leaders in SIU’s participation in the event.
SIU also conducted its own programming, running simultaneously in the stadium and online, Baer said.
“More than 40 SIU students worked on this, but we have a few that played key roles in this work,” Baer said.
Students playing key roles include:
Physics students:
Richard Danley – astrophotography undergraduate team lead.
Brodye Miller – live stream technical lead, working with NASA EDGE.
Chris Mandrell – telescope feeds and Dynamic Eclipse Broadcast Initiative (DEB) grant coordinator.
Media arts students:
Drew Yepsen – graduate student in media arts, associate producer of the SIU eclipse broadcast.
Nathan Culli – videography, working with NASA EDGE and telescope feed teams.
Alyssa Krueger – production truck technician, working with NASA EDGE.
Sean Hopewell – performed general duties as needed.
SIU staff playing major roles include Karla Berry, interim director, School of Media Arts; Cori Brevik, associate professor, School of Physics and Applied Physics; Harvey Henson, director, STEM Education Research Center, and associate professor, School of Education; and Baer, all of whom were lead- or co-investigators on grants for the project. Corey Tester, of the School of Art and Design, worked on the telescope imaging on Eclipse Day.