New Director of Observatory Named

Daily Camera
August 9, 2002

Doug Duncan, an astronomer and researcher from the University of Chicago, is the new director of CU's Fiske Planetarium and Sommers-Bausch Observatory.

Duncan was director of astronomy at the University of Chicago's Adler Planetarium and a senior research associate in the department of astronomy and astrophysics. He also worked with the American Astronomical Society, where he focused on improving teaching and public communication for astronomers throughout the United States.

"Doug brings enormous energy and experience in teaching and planetarium program development and is a verv well-known educator and scientist," said Michael Shull, chair of the astrophysical and planetary sciences department at CU, which oversees the observatories.

Duncan studies stellar astronomy, the Big Bang theory, galactic chemical evolution. stellar rotation and the evolution of stars such as the sun. In the late 1970s, he was part of a project that found sun spot cycles on other stars, a discovery that has helped scientists better understand solar activities and how they affect Earth.