John W. Weiss
The Cheshire Cat
Carleton College
weissj@moonlets.org
Who am I? (in 200 words or fewer)
I am a Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Carleton College, my alma mater. I'm having a blast teaching again and the students are fantastic. I was recently a post-doc working at CICLOPS doing ring science for the Cassini mission with Carolyn Porco. It was great fun and it was great to be part of something that big. I received my Ph.D. in May of 2005 from CU Boulder in Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences where my advisor was Glen Stewart. My thesis was mainly about the edges of rings where there are no moons to constrain the particles. Fun stuff, but pretty computationally intensive. I went to college at Carleton College (class of 1999). At Carleton, I was a Physics/Astro and Math double major, which kept me busy-but-quite-happy.
I am originally from Rochester, MN. My dad is a journalist (reporter/photographer) who specializes in outdoors and environmental stuff. My mom is an Ed. Asst. at an elementary school, where she applies the harsh lessons about kids that my siblings and I taught her. If she could handle us, she can handle anything. My siblings, Angela and Charlie (CJ) are 3 and 6 years younger than I am, respectively. Both are science oriented as well, so I suspect that there was some contamination in our water supply. Angela is the biologist; she graduated from St. Olaf, the college across the Cannon River. She's now a high school science teacher, recently moved back to Rochester from in Northeastern Minnesota. CJ majored in chemistry at Carleton. He's currently in grad school in Chicago. He hasn't blown himself up yet, but it isn't for want of trying.
I've also done a lot of teaching, not just in my current position. I did a stint as a summer instructor at CU, teaching ASTR 1110. I was also my department's Lead Graduate Teacher. I spend time training TAs and helping them become better teachers. (I was also somehow the department web-master. Which was a real learning experience. It was also enormously fun, but I love a challenge, so my idea of "fun" may not agree with yours.) A while ago, I wrote an article that was published in the Griffiths Observatory Observer, which was incredibly cool. And finally, I'm a Mad Scientist.
Hobbies-wise (in my oh-so-copious free time) I mainly have my nose in books. It's kind of frightening to realize that I have seven bookshelves all to myself. I'm not quite sure where I found room, but the gravity of the books might have caused some spacetime warping, I suppose. I also have a very cuddly cat named Chiana and until my last move, I had seven guinea pigs (all named after minor bodies in the solar system). Head to the pictures pages to see them. They're very cute. And I co-founded the Science-Fiction and Fantasy Underground at CU. Otherwise, I mostly cross-stitch (you can also see these under pictures at left) and cook/bake.
If you want to learn more about me, either you are bored and should do something constructive or should e-mail me.
That was more than 200 words. Limits be darned.
A Few of My Favorite Links:
Friends
- Kisha's Page Kisha's my ex-gf and is pretty much a big (well, older) sister for me, now.
- Licia, my officemate.
College and University Pages
Pages from my alma mater and my current institutions.
- Carleton College My alma mater and current employer. I love this place, so if you are a prospective student (especially one with a math/science interest), e-mail me and I'll be happy to answer questions!
- Carleton Physics/Astronomy Dept. Where I was a major and now teach. Love it here. In case you're curious, we have some neat-o pictures of us being generally odd sorts of people all around...
- Goodsell Observatory I can often be found here, teaching, observing, or just doing astro stuff. My favorite place on campus: it's an old building that looks, sounds, smells, and feel like a good, historic building should. Plus? Some fantastic old instruments, including an Alvin-Clark telescope and a meridian transit telescope.
- The Math/CS Dept. Where I was also a major. Another great dept. As for the page, lots of good stuff here. Fun profs with cool pages.
- Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at CU My old department.
- CICLOPS The Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for OPerationS. Lots of nifty pictures, movies, and even a golf game, all made by my recent co-workers.
- Space Science Institute The outfit that used to pay my salary (CICLOPS is part of SSI). They also work on museum exhibits that you might see sometime.
- Sommers-Bausch Observatory Another place I can be spotted, from time to time. Keith Gleason runs a nice site, check it out.
John Weiss