Written Biography
Dr. Terry D. Oswalt is Chair of the Physical Sciences Department at the Daytona Beach campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU). He earned his Ph.D. in Astronomy at The Ohio State University specializing in studies of binary star systems, stellar evolution, minor planets, and comets. During his career Oswalt has taught a wide variety of physics and astronomy courses and served in several administrative posts, while continuing his primary research interest in studies of collapsed stars called white dwarfs.
Oswalt is the founding Chairman of the Southeast Association for Research in Astronomy (SARA), a consortium of thirteen institutions lead by ERAU that operates remote-access telescopes at that Kitt Peak National Observatory (near Tucson, Arizona), Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory in Chile, and Roque de los Muchachos in the Canary Islands. He also has been director of the SARA summer internship program, which brought undergraduate students from around the U.S. to do research at the SARA facility at Kitt Peak each summer. In recognition of his astronomical research and work in founding the SARA consortium, Dr. Oswalt was named the 2010 Florida Academy of Science Medalist.
Oswalt has been a Harlow Shapley Lecturer for over twenty years and has served on numerous AAS committees. He is currently a member of the IAU Commission C.G1 Binary & Multiple Stars scientific organizing committee and has been an elected councilor for the Physics and Astronomy Division of the Council on Undergraduate Research for several consecutive terms. He also has been a program officer for the Astronomical Sciences Division at the National Science Foundation. Dr. Oswalt is author or co-author of over 220 scientific articles and has edited nine astronomy books including, most recently, a six-volume series of astronomy reference books Planets, Stars & Stellar Systems, which was an updated version of the classic Stars & Stellar Systems series.
Candidate Statement
If elected V.P. of the HAD, I will work hard to increase our membership and to cultivate an appreciation for the history of our discipline among the general AAS membership, students and the public. I will also seek to engage more early career astronomers (especially those in “nontraditional” positions) in HAD activities and to increase our Division’s interaction with the AAS Council. I have a special interest in the preservation of astronomical data and would like our Division to expand our leadership role in this area by helping to preserve the most historically and scientifically important documents of former astronomers. We should also seek collaborations with other astronomical organizations, historical societies, media, and funding agencies that have interests in the history of astronomy. Finally, as the astronomical community prepares for a new generation of ground- and space-based facilities and a decadal study of scientific priorities, our Commission can provide a useful historical perspective to the relevant planning committees. I am willing to serve if elected for office in the American Astronomical Society.