Written Biography
Terry Oswalt is Chair of the Physical Sciences Department at the Daytona Beach campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He earned his Ph.D. in Astronomy at The Ohio State University in 1981, 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 white dwarfs.
Terry is the founding Chairman of the Southeast Association for Research in Astronomy (SARA), a consortium of fifteen institutions (lead by ERAU) which operates remote-access telescopes at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, and Roque de los Muchachos in the Canary Islands. He was director of the SARA summer internship program, which brought undergraduate students from around the U.S. to do research at the SARA facilities between 1995 and 2012. In recognition of his astronomical research and work in founding the SARA consortium, Dr. Oswalt was named the 2010 Florida Academy of Science Medalist.
An active member of HAD since 2008, Terry has been a Harlow Shapley Lecturer for over twenty years and has served on numerous AAS committees. He is currently a member of several IAU Commissions, including Commission C3 (History of Astronomy), has served as Councilor for the Physics and Astronomy Division of the Council on Undergraduate Research for nearly two decades, and has been a program officer for the Astronomical Sciences Division at the National Science Foundation. Terry is author or co-author of over 220 scientific articles and has edited nine astronomy books including, most recently, the six-volume reference series Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems, an updated version of the classic Stars and Stellar Systems series.
Candidate Statement
If elected Vice-Chair of HAD, my priority will be on increasing our Division’s membership and cultivating an appreciation for the history of our discipline among the general AAS membership, students and the public. We especially need 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.
As the astronomical community prepares for a new generation of ground- and space-based facilities and a decadal study of scientific priorities, our Division can provide a useful historical perspective to the relevant planning committees. I am eager to serve if elected for this office!