Members of the American Astronomical Society recently elected J. Craig Wheeler as their president-elect. Wheeler, who took office at the society’s annual meeting in June, will serve as president-elect until June 2006, when he will serve as president until June 2008. He succeeds Robert Kirshner (see Physics Today, April 2003, page 79,).
Wheeler received his BS in physics from MIT in 1965 and his PhD in physics from the University of Colorado in 1969. His research interests include supernovae, black holes, gamma-ray bursts, and astrobiology, and he heads the Supernova Research Group at the University of Texas at Austin (UT). Wheeler serves on the space studies board of the National Research Council and is co-chair of the NRC committee on the origin and evolution of life. He is a member of the University of Texas Academy of Distinguished Teachers.
Currently, Wheeler is the Samuel T. and Fern Yanagisawa...