Augsburg College - NASA Space Grant

Sverdrup Visiting Scientist Program

Members of the Augsburg Physics Department with the Sverdrup family and Visiting Scientist Christopher McKay: Jeanine Gregiore, NASA Space Grant Coordinator; Mark Engebretson, Physics Department Chair; George Sverdrup; Chris McKay, Sverdrup Visiting Scientist Lecturer; Jean Sverdrup; Johan Sverdurp, Sverdrup Visiting Scientist Lecture Patron; Bill Jasperson; Ken Erickson; Ambrose Wolf; Jeff Johnson

The General Leif J. Sverdrup Visiting Scientist Program was established in 1990 by Johan Sverdrup of St. Louis, Missouri, in memory of his father, Major General Leif J. Sverdrup (Augsburg, 1918). General Sverdrup was the founder of Sverdrup and Parcel, Inc. (now the Sverdrup Corp.), and international architectural and engineering firm. He graduated from Augsburg College in 1918 and was honored in 1958 as a Distinguished Alumnus.

There are two goals to the Sverdrup Visiting Scientist Program. The first is to provide an opportunity for Augsburg students and faculty to interact on a personal basis with scientists of national stature. Second, the program provides an annual forum where Augsburg and the wider scientific community can expand their knowledge on scientific topics of national significance.

Sverdrup program events include the Sverdrup Visiting Scientist Public Lecture; a divisional colloquium for Augsburg faculty, staff and undergraduates; informal talks with faculty; special events for undergraduates including a special luncheon and the Society of Physics Students Banquet; and public outreach programs at an area high school and middle school.

For more information on the next Sverdrup Visiting Scientist Lecture, please call 612-330-1253 or visit: www.augsburg.edu/convo.

Past Sverdrup Lecturers
1991	Dr. Thomas Potemra - John Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory "The Arctic Exploration of Fridtjof Nansen"
1992	Dr. Margaret Galland Kivelson - UCLA, "Space Exploration of the Giant Planets"
1993	Dr. Harry C. Holloway - NASA, "Space Exploration: Maintaining Health and Human Performance on the Mars Trip and Beyond"
1994	Dr. Walter Munk - Scripps Institute of Oceanography, "The Changing Climate"
1995	Dr. Lucy McFadden - Associate Space Physicist, University of California and Visiting Professor, University of Maryland, "The Collision of Comet Shoemaker -Levy 9 with Jupiter"
1996	Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson - Hayden Planetarium, New York City and Princeton University, "Death by Black Hole"
1997	Dr. James G. Anderson - Harvard University "Ozone, Climate and the Edge of Science"
1998	Dr. Marcia McNutt - Chief Executive Officer, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, "Beyond Jules Verne: Ocean Exploration for the 21st Century"
1999	Dr. John Freeman, Jr. - Department of Space Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, "Storms in Space"
2000	Dr. David Bishop - Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, "Mighty Machines the Size of Mites: The Science and Technology of Micromachines"
2001	Dr. Christopher McKay - NASA Ames Research Center, "From Antarctica to Mars: The Search for Life in Cold and Dry Places"
2002	Dr. Maria Zuber - E.A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "Expedition to an Asteroid: The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) Mission"
2004	Dr. Noel Hinners - Senior Research Associaate at the Laboratory for Atmospheric & Space Physics, University of Colorado, "The Exploration of Mars: An Ongoing Saga of Fact & Fiction, Dreams & Aspirations."