Tom R. Dennis

  • Professor Emeritus of Astronomy

Tom Dennis teaches introductory astronomy courses (Concepts of Astronomy; The Sky) as well as a tutorial in Photometry and intermediate-level courses. His course Cosmology and Stars: Time and Transformation in the Universe is a narrative history of the universe.

Along with his science colleagues at MHC, Dennis is a cocreator the Unity of Science course. Developed in 1995, with the help of a $150,000 National Science Foundation, the course is designed to introduce nonmajors to a range of sciences from an interdisciplinary and interactive perspective.

In 1998, Tom Dennis, along with colleague Ron Zissell, hosted the American Association of Variable Star Observers' eighty-sixth annual meeting at MHC.

Areas of Expertise

Concepts of astronomy; instrumentation for surface photometry and for precision radial-velocity measurements; pedagogy; cosmology

Education

  • Ph.D., A.M., Princeton University
  • A.M., A.B., University of Michigan