Past Residencies - Dr. Daniel Fleisch

A man with glasses and white hair stands next to a large cylindrical telescope — Dr. Dan Fleisch, Grand Canyon's fifth Astronomer in Residence.
Photo Courtesy Dr. Dan Fleisch

Dr. Dan Fleisch is the award-winning Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics at Wittenberg University, where he specializes in electromagnetics and space physics. He is the author of the internationally best-selling book A Student’s Guide to Maxwell’s Equations. Dr. Fleisch is also the author of A Student’s Guide to Vectors and Tensors, published by Cambridge Press in 2011, co-author of A Student’s Guide to the Mathematics of Astronomy, published in September of 2013, and A Student’s Guide to Waves, published in June of 2015, and author of A Student's Guide to the Schrödinger Equation, published in 2020.

As Grand Canyon's fifth Astronomer in Residence, Dan spent his time presenting more than 20 unique public programs on many aspects of astronomy, from moons and planets to cosmology and Black Holes. He reached over 3,000 visitors from his formal programs, and countless more through informal solar-observing sessions, pop-up telescope viewing, and constellation talks along the rim of the Canyon.

A man stands next to a solar telescope on the rim of the Grand Canyon. Several visitors gather around. — Dr. Fleisch provided several informal solar-viewing sessions along the rim of the Canyon during his residency.
NPS Photo Rader Lane

Residency Accomplishments

Provided 20 unique astronomy programs, each followed by an outdoor Sky Tour with a laser pointer, and telescope viewing.
Reached over 3,000 visitors with his 20 programs, an average on 150 attendees per program, with several nights surpassing 300 visitors.
Provided several informal solar-observing sessions, telescope viewing, and constellation tours for passersby on the rim of the Canyon.
Visited Grand Canyon School and provided a talk to the 3rd-5th grade students, inspiring the next generation of scientists.
Appeared on Lowell Observatory's "Star Stuff" podcast. "The Math of the Universe & Elements of Awe with Astronomer Dr. Daniel Fleisch | Star Stuff Podcast."
Will be recording all his formal programs and publishing them online. Check back here to see when they are published.

A theater full of visitors — Dr. Dan Fleisch provided 20 unique formal astronomy programs during his residency, reaching over 3,000 visitors from around the world.
NPS Photo Rader Lane

A group of visitors gather around a projector screen outside under the stars. — Dr. Fleisch followed each astronomy talk with an outdoor laser-guided sky tour, as well as telescope viewing, where he projected astronomical objects from his telescope onto a projector screen for all to see.
NPS Photo Rader Lane

A man explains a concept to eager school children. — Dr. Fleisch amazed some eager students about the wonders of astronomy when he visited Grand Canyon School during his residency.
GCC Photo Clover Morell

Along with his public presenations for Grand Canyon National Park visitors, Dr. Fleisch visited Grand Canyon School to present a program, called "The Grand Tour: A Quick Trip to the Limits of the Known Universe" to the 3rd-5th grade classes. Grand Canyon National Park is the only park with a K-12 school inside its boundaries. We thank Dr. Fleisch for his willingness to reach out to the small community of Grand Canyon, taking time to inspire the next generation of scientists!

“I've been reading a lot of articles about ‘awe’ in scientific and popular journals, and I've noticed that many of those articles give two examples of stimuli that can inspire feelings of awe: seeing the Grand Canyon and gazing deeply into the night sky. For my residency at the Grand Canyon, I've put together a program that includes more than 20 presentations and observing sessions, all designed not only to impart information about the Earth, other planets, and the universe, but also to provide an opportunity for visitors to experience the profound emotion of ‘awe,’ reap the benefits of that emotion, and help them understand the value of science in our world.” - Dr. Daniel Fleisch