Paul Mortfield

Paul Mortfield is an astronomer and computer scientist who has returned to Canada after nearly 20 years in California. While there, he was involved in creating innovative education and public outreach activities with Stanford University's Solar Observatories Group, and their involvement in NASA's SOHO Solar spacecraft. He also worked on NASA's LCROSS lunar mission in search of water at the south pole of the moon. He continues collaborations with NASA scientists on a variety of projects and is a member of NASA's Education Products Review team. Paul was chair of the Solar Division of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO), a group that has been responsible for computing the American Relative Sunspot number for over 60 years.

Paul is a sought-after guest speaker at scientific and educational conferences, including the National Science Teachers Association Convention, astronomy clubs, star parties and the Advanced Imaging Conference. He is also a regular television commentator on astronomy, having appeared on CBS-5 in San Francisco, CNN, the Discovery Channel and most notably, as the regular host of NASA-TV's educational broadcasts on solar astronomy.

A passionate astro-photographer, Paul's photographs have appeared in magazines, calendars, and NASA educational materials. There are on display in galleries and science centers in North America and Europe. He has also created software to guide telescopes in photographing fast moving comets. To date, Paul has discovered 4 asteroids.

In his hi-tech career, Paul successfully led software development and engineering teams in large scale projects. He is an expert in automated test systems design and QA processes and operations. He has taught computer science and astronomy courses at colleges in the United States and Canada.

Paul is currently a professor at Seneca College in Toronto.

In his free time, Paul plays blues piano and guitar. He uses his backyard and remote observatories for research projects, astrophotography and sharing the night sky with family and friends.

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Contact: Paul at Backyardastronomer dot com

All photos unless otherwise stated Copyright 1996-2009 © Paul Mortfield. All rights reserved