Robert Fleck

Robert Fleck is Emeritus Professor of Physics and Astronomy in the Department of Physical Sciences at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, where for four decades he developed and taught a large number and a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate courses in physics, astronomy, general science, and history of science. For inspiring his students with his passion and enthusiasm for teaching and lifelong learning, he received the University Outstanding Teaching Award in 2000 and 2015, as well as over a dozen faculty appreciation awards from graduating senior classes. Professor Fleck is a NASA and National Science Foundation supported star and planet formation theorist; he has published in a wide variety of disciplines, including physics and astronomy and the history of science, and he has been a Visiting Scientist at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and a Perren Visiting Fellow at the University of London. He also pioneered Embry-Riddle’s study abroad program, teaching classes in England, France, Italy, and Greece, and he has completed two book-length manuscripts titled The Evolution of Scientific Thought: A Cultural History of Western Science from the Paleolithic to the Present and Art History as Science History: Picturing the History of Science from the Paleolithic to the Present. His recently published book is Entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics . . . or Why Things Tend to Go Wrong and Seem to Get Worse. When not reading or writing, he enjoys swimming, surfing, cycling, and traveling.