This server is now being discovered. Some times we have up to 50,000 hits a day which seems like a lot to us. We gratefully acknowledge the following sources of partial support for this project through grants and equipment:

• The Oregon State System of Higher Education
• The National Science Foundation
• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• Sun MicroSystems

We are now frequently asked about what our qualifications are and how reliable our information is. While we hope final judgement of the information rests with the reader themselves, we can say the following:

• WE are the University of Oregon Physics department and a lot of the information on this server is used in our classes.

• the main purpose of this server is to provide scientifically accurate information to the public

• the second main purpose (it is always good to have two main purposes ...) is to develop interactive curriculum modules in the JAVA programming language.

If you are interested in the qualifications of the Director of this project see below, but it's not very interesting reading:

Other key project personnel are:

• Top Notch Programmer Sean
• Exquisitely talented graphics artist Amy
• Our intrepid fly fisherman David
• Physics Department Faculty

Resume of G. Bothun

Education:

Professional Employment

• The Very Large Array Radio Telescope NRAO 1977
• The University of Washington, Astronomy Instructor 1980-1981
• Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Center Research Fellow 1981--83
• California Institute of Technology, Bantrell Research Fellow 1983--86
• The University of Michigan, Assistant Professor in Astronomy (1986--1989)
• The University of Michigan, Associate Professor in Astronomy (1989--1990)
• The University of Oregon, Associate Professor in Physics (1990--1995)
• The University of Oregon, Professor in Physics (1995--present)

Other:

Professional Societies

• American Astronomical Society
• American Association for the Advancement of Science

Professional Experience:

Research Productivity

• 165 Papers in Refereed Journals (1980-2002)( Complete list here)

  Original Member: ISI Highly Cited Researcher in Space Sciences (1980-2000)

  One Graduate Level Textbook: Modern Cosmological Observations and Problems

  One Undergraduate Textbook: Cosmology: Mankind's Grand Investigation

  Numerous Popular Articles

  Over $3.0 million in grant funding from NASA and NSF since 1986

  Chair of Numerous NASA Peer Reviews

  Approximately 2000 nights of Observing since 1980 on most of the major radio and optical telescopes in the world

  Extensive experience with Space Based instrumentation - including the Hubble Space Telescope

Research Interests:

• Galaxy formation and evolution
• Dwarf Galaxies
• Galaxies of Low Surface Brightness
• Large Scale Structure
• Clusters of Galaxies
• Observational Cosmology

Teaching

• Developed new course titled Cosmology and the Origin of Life ( See the course here )
• Have taught approximately 20,000 undergraduates in Elementary Astronomy courses since 1980
• Have supervised 15 Graduate Student Ph.D , dissertations since 1987
• Helped developed and teach in new Environmental Studies program at the University of Oregon
• Have given over 100 public lectures since 1984 to various groups
• Supervise the Friends of Pine Mountain Observatory Educational outreach program which visits 200+ K12 classrooms a year in the State of Oregon and which accommodates approximately 2500 visitors per year during the summer to the observatory ( Visit Pine Mountain )
• Developed distanced education courses in Astronomy and Environmental Studies that can be taken over the Internet .
• Extremely active in the development of HTML/JAVA electronic curriculum
• Initiated the Electronic Universe Project - a Web server dedicated to public outreach and education by delivering real data to the public. This has been on the air since Feb 9, 1994 - making it one of the first such servers. The server now sees 20,000 - 40,000 accesses a day from around the world.

Computing and Networking

• 7 years experience in UNIX system administration in the SUN OS and Solaris operating environments
• Good familiarity with Windows 98/2000
• Expert at troubleshooting Network connectivity problems
• Have some experience in designing networks and implementing routing protocols
• Extensive Web "programming" skills
• Familiar with computer projection LCD systems

Distance Education Experience

• Have taught over 100 students internationally using Web-based courseware I have authored in the following subjects:
  • Physics 161: Physics of Energy and the Environment
  • Physics 162: Alternative and Renewable Energy
  • Astronomy 121: The Solar System
  • Astronomy 123: Cosmology and the Origin of Life

Brief Statement on Educational Outreach

I strongly believe it is the personal responsibility of the scientist to help educate the public to show that we live in a rational universe. The current level of science literacy in this country is alarmingly low and does not bode well for a competitive advantage in a technical world. Must of this is a result of the way that we teach and/or present science to the lay public. In general, we present this as a collection of "facts" learned about the physical world. We rarely, if ever, present it as a discovery process in which the science is built on experimental results . With the widespread appeal of the Internet and its associated Web browsers, the scientist now has a good forum for placing their data and their explanations of it in a public forum for immediate access.. I was one of the first to do this and to see the potential and have been actively engaged in this enterprise for the last 4 years. We need to present science in a much more innovative and engaging way than has ever been done before and the new technologies are helping to do just that.