Dr. Chris Hynes presents at National Astronomical Society 01/21/2010 »

Dr. Chris Hynes, LSMSA Chemistry faculty member, participated in a Summer Research Experience for Teachers program at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, WV.  During the 8 week program Dr. Hynes developed programming code to mathematically model particle velocities within a comet's coma.  Dr. Hynes then expanded his work to include modeling sublimation rates as a function of distance from the Sun.   The knowledge and experience he gained through this RET will be incorporated in his Accelerated Chemistry III class to demonstrate how Chemistry, Astronomy and Computer Science can be cross disciplinary. Dr. Hynes presented his research at the LSMSA Colloquia series on Oct 8^th. Dr. Hynes then presented a poster of his work titled, “Planning for Cometary Observations with the Green Bank Telescope and Its Application to Chemistry Classroom Activities” at the 2010 American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting in Washington, DC. The AAS meeting is the largest gathering of astronomers in the world.