We live in a moment in time. It’s the place where the accomplishments of those that came before us meet up with what will be undertaken by future generations. It’s a great place to be, especially if you’re part of the future generation. By learning about the past both in terms of what we know and how we’ve come to know it, and talking to those that work on the frontiers right now, a child can choose to shape the future. It’s pretty powerful stuff. And teachers are the incredible key to linking the past with the future.

Join Dr. Jeff Goldstein, Center Director for the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education for a wondrous look at who we are as a species and what drives us to the great frontiers. It will be a journey to the frontiers of flight in air and space to see how far we've come and what awaits the next generation, and to powerfully reaffirm why we chose to become science educators.

Dr. Jeff is also a planetary scientist and has used large ground-based telescopes to study the winds on other worlds. He promises to describe the experience of working on top of the world in the Pacific to pull back the veil of nature just a little and see something wholly new to the human race.

Biography

Dr. Jeff Goldstein is Center Director for the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE; http://ncesse.usra.edu), established in June 2005 under the auspices of the Universities Space Research Association (USRA; http://www.usra.edu). The Center uses national education and public outreach programs in the Earth and space sciences, and aeronautics and astronautics, to help ensure a science literate public and a next generation of scientists and engineers — both of which are of national importance in an age of high technology. A central objective is to help continue America’s legacy as a leader on the frontiers of science and technology well into the 21st century.

The Center embraces as its core belief ‘that to continue the legacy of scientific exploration, every generation must be inspired to learn what we know about our world and the universe, and how we have come to know it.’ To reach the next generation the Center engages entire communities — students, families, educators, and the public — through science education programs that provide multiple pathways for student learning. The vision is growing a national and international network of these ‘learning communities’ through which science education programs and resources can be delivered on a regular basis. The Center is committed to ensuring that these programs reflect rich science and technology content through ongoing access to the research activities, and experiences of researchers, across USRA’s association of 100 member universities; USRA’s 14 other national institutes, centers, and program offices; and NASA through a Space Act Agreement now in place with Goddard Space Flight Center.

As Center Director, Dr. Goldstein is responsible for the creation and delivery of national initiatives addressing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. These include programs for schools, families, and the public; professional development for grade preK-13 educators; exhibitions for museums and science centers; and distance learning programs. Initiatives are meant to provide a window on the nature of science and the lives of modern-day explorers, with special emphasis on not just what is known about the Universe but how it has come to be known. This approach serves to reveal the very personal means by which researchers ask questions of the world, empower themselves to create a pathway to an answer, and hopefully bear witness to something wholly new to the human race. Fundamentally, the embraced educational paradigm is inspire… then educate.

As a program director, Dr. Goldstein oversaw the development of Voyage, a permanent scale model of the Solar System that opened on the National Mall in Washington, DC, in October 2001. The distance from the Sun to Pluto within this one to ten-billion model spans 600 meters (2,000 feet) between the National Air and Space Museum and the Smithsonian Castle. A joint project of Challenger Center for Space Science Education, the Smithsonian Institution, and NASA, Voyage was designed to be permanently installed at sites world-wide. NCESSE launched the Voyage replication phase in September 2006 (http://voyagesolarsystem.org).

Dr. Goldstein also oversees Journey through the Universe — an initiative providing sustainable community-wide science education for communities nationally (http://journeythroughtheuniverse.org). He also oversees the Center’s activities in support of NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft mission to Mercury, which includes training of 27,000 teachers in Solar System science.

Dr. Goldstein is routinely invited to give keynote and featured presentations at educator conferences. He has received numerous awards for education and public outreach, most recently the Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s 2005 Klumpke-Roberts Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Public Understanding and Appreciation of Astronomy. Dr. Goldstein has conducted over 150 educator workshops, and over 700 presentations at elementary through college levels.

Dr. Goldstein’s planetary science research includes the development of techniques for measurement of the global winds on other planets using telescope facilities on Earth. He oversaw the development of telescope tracking and planetary atmospheric modeling software, as well as new saturated resonance stabilized CO₂ laser systems for infrared heterodyne spectrometers. Laser system development enabled absolute frequency calibration of fully resolved ro-vibrational spectra in the thermal infrared, allowing retrieval of wind-induced Doppler shifts at a resolution as low as 1 m/s (detection of wind speeds as low as 2 mph.) His research has produced the first direct measurement of the global winds above the clouds on Venus, the first measurement of the global winds on Mars, and allowed determination of the magnitude and direction of winds in the atmosphere of Saturn’s largest moon Titan—important information for NASA's Cassini mission to Saturn. These comparative planetary studies lead to a better understanding of the physics and chemistry that govern atmospheric phenomena in general, and provide insightful clues to atmospheric phenomena here on Earth.

Dr. Goldstein was appointed Director of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education in June 2005. Prior to joining USRA, he served as Executive VP for Space Science Education and Research at Challenger Center for Space Science Education (1996-2005). From 1989 to 1996 he was an astrophysicist in the Laboratory for Astrophysics at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, departing as acting chairman. Dr. Goldstein received his M.S. and Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Pennsylvania. He received his B.A. in physics from the City University of New York. He is also proud to have attended the Bronx High School of Science.