About Jeffrey Bennett

Jeffrey Bennett holds a B.A. in Biophysics from the University of California at San Diego and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He currently specializes in mathematics and science education, spending most of his time as a writer, along with speaking to audiences ranging from elementary school children to college faculty, and offering teacher in-service workshops. He has taught extensively at all levels, including having founded and run a private science summer school for elementary and middle school children. At the college level, he has taught more than fifty classes in astronomy, physics, mathematics, and education. He is the author of leading college textbooks in four distinct subject areas: astronomy, mathematics, statistics, and astrobiology (life in the universe). He has written two books for general public called On the Cosmic Horizon (Addison Wesley) and Beyond UFOs (Princeton University Press), and two children's books: Max Goes to the Moon and Max Goes to Mars. He has donated one or both of his children's books to more than 10,000 elementary schools across the nation.

Among his other major endeavors, he served two years as a Visiting Senior Scientist at NASA Headquarters, where his achievements included creating the Initiative to Develop Education through Astronomy (originally IDEA, now called IDEAS), developing the Perspectives From Space theme (and creating its poster set) for International Space Year, and helping start the program known as Flight Opportunities for Science Teacher EnRichment (FOSTER), which flew teachers on the Kuiper Airborne Observatory and will soon be taking teachers on the SOFIA airborne observatory.

Perhaps his most visible achievements have been his work in developing educational scale models of the solar system. He proposed the idea for and helped develop both the Colorado Scale Model Solar System (on the University of Colorado campus) and the Voyage Scale Model Solar System on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

Among his current projects, he is one of the founders of Big Kid Science, a new company dedicated to educating and inspiring children with the wonders of science. When not working, he enjoys participating in masters swimming and the daily adventures of life with his wife Lisa, children Grant and Brooke, and dog Cosmo.

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