About David
David H. Levy is one of the most
successful comet discoverers in history. He has discovered 22 comets,
nine of them using his own backyard telescopes. With Eugene and Carolyn
Shoemaker at the Palomar Observatory in California he discovered
Shoemaker-Levy 9, the comet that collided with Jupiter in 1994. That
episode produced the most spectacular explosions ever witnessed in the
solar system. Levy is currently involved with the Jarnac Comet
Survey, which is based at the Jarnac Observatory in Vail, Arizona but
which has telescopes planned for locations around the world.
Levy is the author or editor of 35 books and other products. He won an
Emmy in 1998 as part of the writing team for the Discovery Channel
documentary, "Three Minutes to Impact." As the Science Editor for Parade
Magazine from 1997 to 2006, he was able to reach more than 80 million readers, almost a
quarter of the population of the United States. A contributing editor for
Sky and Telescope Magazine, he writes its monthly "Star Trails" column,
and his "Nightfall" feature appears in each issue of the Canadian Magazine
Skynews.
David Levy has given more than 1000 lectures and major interviews,
and has appeared on many television programs, such as the Today show (4
times), Good Morning America (twice), the National Geographic special
"Asteroids: Deadly Impact", and ABC's World News Tonight, where he and the
Shoemakers were named Persons of the Week for July 22, 1994. Also, Levy
has done nationally broadcast testimonials for PBS (1995-present), and for
the Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon (1998-1999). He and his wife
Wendee host a weekly radio show available worldwide at
www.letstalkstars.com. In 2004 he was the Senator John Rhodes Chair
in Public Policy and American Institutions at Arizona State University. He
has been awarded five honorary doctorates, and asteroid 3673 (Levy) was
named in his honor. In 2010, David became the first person to discover comets visually, photographically, and electronically.
On June 6, 2010, David was awarded a Ph. D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for his dissertation for the Department of English on the topic of "The Sky in Early Modern English Literature: A Study of Allusions to Celestial Events in Elizabethan and Jacobean Writing, 1572-1610."
Levy is President of the National Sharing the Sky Foundation, an organization intended to inspire new generations to develop an inquiring interest in the sciences, or in other words, to reach for the stars.
Levy resides in Vail, Arizona, with
his wife, Wendee. After teaching Physical Education in the Las Cruces
school district for 26 years, in 1996 Wendee became the manager of Jarnac
Observatory, and was promoted to Director in 2004. Wendee is an integral
part of our Jarnac Comet Survey, helping to organize the program and scan
the images. As Secretary-Treasurer of the National Sharing the Sky Foundation, Wendee plays a vital role in its activities.
CLICK HERE TO
VIEW DAVID'S FORMAL RESUME
|