David J. Helfand

David J. Helfand, a faculty member at Columbia University for forty-six years, served nearly half of that time as Chair of the Department of Astronomy. He also completed a four-year term as President of the American Astronomical Society, the professional society for astronomers, astrophysicists, planetary scientists and solar physicists in North America, and is now Chair of the American Institute of Physics and of AIP Publishing, LLC. He is the author of over 200 scientific publications and has mentored 22 PhD students, but most of his pedagogical efforts have been aimed at teaching science to non-science majors. He instituted the first change in Columbia's famed Core Curriculum in over 50 years by introducing Frontiers of Science, a course required of all first-year students. In 2005, he became involved with an effort to create Canada's first independent, non-profit, secular university, Quest University Canada. He served as a Visiting Tutor in the University's inaugural semester in the Fall of 2007 and was appointed President & Vice-Chancellor the following year to lead this innovative experiment in higher education. For six years in a row, Quest was ranked #1 in North America in the National Survey of Student Engagement. He completed his term as President of Quest in the fall of 2015 and returned to Columbia where he headed the Committee on Innovative Teaching and Learning. His first book, "A Survival Guide to the Misinformation Age" appeared, appropriately, in 2016. His commentary has appeared in Nature, Physics Today, The Chronicle of Higher Education, the Globe and Mail, the Washington Post, and the New York Times, among other publications. His second book, "The Universal Timekeepers: Reconstructing History Atom by Atom" is now available for pre-order. Learn more at http://www.davidjhelfand.info