|
| 12-14-99 Contacts: Lee Anne Willson, Physics and Astronomy, (515) 294-6765 Skip Derra, News Service, (515) 294-4917 IOWA STATE PROFESSOR NAMED PRESIDENT OF AAVSO AMES, Iowa -- Lee Anne Willson, a university professor of physics and astronomy at Iowa State, has been named president of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). Willson has been a member of the organization for 20 years and has served as vice president for the past two years. Willson said she became interested in the AAVSO because her work at Iowa State deals primarily with researching variable stars -- stars that change in brightness when they are very young, very old or dying. "The information collected by the AAVSO directly relates to the work I do at Iowa State," she said. AAVSO is a non-profit scientific and educational organization that was founded in 1911. It is the largest organization of variable star observers worldwide and has members in more than 40 countries. It coordinates variable star observations made mostly by amateur astronomers, evaluates the accuracy of observations, and compiles and publishes them. -30- |
||||
| Iowa State homepage University Relations, online@iastate.edu |
||||