Paula Turner, associate professor of physics and Kenyon's resident astronomer, is a hands-on person. That spirit serves her well, whether she's building a set for a local community theater group, making calibrations to the College's fourteen-inch telescope, or preparing meals for more than a dozen amateur astronomers. Above all, Turner loves to share her passion for physics and astronomy with students and hobbyists alike.

"Physics was the hardest thing that I really loved," says Turner, who once considered careers in both English and drama. As a professor, Turner studies near-infrared imaging, which allows astronomers to see deeply into dusty regions of space. "It's particularly for studying star formation," she notes.

Turner shares her expertise beyond the classroom through community-outreach activities. She manages the College's Franklin Miller Observatory at the Brown Family Environmental Center, opening the facility monthly to members of the community outside Kenyon. The open houses serve, she says, as "entry-level show and tell" for scores of onlookers who can get good views of celestial bodies like meteors and phenomena like Saturn's rings.

She also directs an astronomy program at the Mount Wilson Observatory near Pasadena, California. This program, the Consortium for Undergraduate Research and Education in Astronomy, hosts about fifteen people for a two-week seminar each summer. It mainly targets "serious amateurs"--people who, in Turner's words, are "willing to take their vacation time, and not sleep, and do astronomy at a big mountain." Turner coordinates all aspects of this program, down to cooking all meals for the participants.

Of all these experiences, bringing astronomy to the college classroom is perhaps most fulfilling for her. "I most enjoy the personal relationships that develop with my students and the collaborations with my colleagues," she says. "We're collaborators in teaching."