# David J. Helfand, PhD

David J. Helfand, having returned from a year as the Sackler Distinguished Visiting Astronomer at the University of Cambridge, is now Professor of Astronomy at Columbia University where he served as Department Chair for more than ten years until liberated in 1997. Unfortunately, he was recently recaptured, and again serves in that capacity. His work has covered many areas of modern astrophysics including radio, optical, and X-ray observations of celestial sources ranging from nearby stars to the most distant quasars. He is currently involved in a major project to survey the Galaxy with a sensitivity and angular resolution a hundred times greater than currently available using the Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico, the XMM-Newton orbiting X-ray telescope, and Columbia's MDM Observatory in Arizona. The goal is to obtain a complete picture of birth and death (for stars) in the Milky Way.
He teaches primarily undergraduate courses for non-science majors, including one of his own design which treats the atom as a tool for revealing the quantitative history of everything from human diet and works of art to the Earth's climate and the Universe. He received the 2001 Presidential Teaching Award and the 2002 Great Teacher Award from the Society of Columbia Graduates. Several years ago, he appeared weekly on the Discovery Channel's program Science News, bringing the latest astronomical discoveries to the US television audience. More recently, his television appearances have been limited to more serious matters on Comedy Central's The Daily Show. He serves on far too many University, government, and American Astronomical Society committees for his own (or anyone else's) good. He believes he is a better cook than astronomer and, ambiguously, most of his colleagues who have sampled his gastronomical undertakings agree.