Author Dr. Ray Weymann
Last Update: 01.27.10
Ray (kneeling) is visiting with amateur astronomer Robin White at a Central Coast Astronomical Society star party.
Dr. Weymann is a retired astrophysicist who moved to Atascadero, California, in 2003. He grew up in Los Angeles, went to California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as an undergraduate, and obtained his PhD in Astrophysics from Princeton University.
For many years Ray was on the Astronomy faculty at the University of Arizona in Tucson, serving for some of that time as Department head and Director of the University of Arizona Steward Observatory. He subsequently moved to Pasadena where he was a member of the scientific staff of the Carnegie Observatories, and served for some of that time as Director of the Carnegie Observatories, overseeing operation of the twin 6.5 meter diameter Magellan telescopes at the Las Campanas Observatory high in the mountainous Atacama Desert of Chile. He has served as Vice-President of the American Astronomical Society, and President of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.
His research interests have covered a wide range of topics including early history of the expanding universe, the study of quasars and of the gas between galaxies, the transfer of radiation through absorbing gases, and of the evolution of the first galaxies to form in the universe. His research has combined both theory and observation and he has used the world's largest and most powerful ground-based telescopes in his work, as well as extensive use of the Hubble Space Telescope, for which he was a member of two of the teams which designed and built some of its instruments.
Since retiring and moving to Atascadero, Ray has been interested in math and science public education, for both adults and students, and he has done volunteer tutoring of students in advanced math subjects at Atascadero High School.
Starting around 2008, Ray became especially interested in public education concerning the basic science of climate change. Since then, he has conducted a series of public lectures on this topic at Cuesta College as well as many presentations to community organizations. He has also communicated with many of the leading climate scientists of the world via personal interviews, telephone and email, and has studied dozens of original research papers on climate change science.
For many years Ray was on the Astronomy faculty at the University of Arizona in Tucson, serving for some of that time as Department head and Director of the University of Arizona Steward Observatory. He subsequently moved to Pasadena where he was a member of the scientific staff of the Carnegie Observatories, and served for some of that time as Director of the Carnegie Observatories, overseeing operation of the twin 6.5 meter diameter Magellan telescopes at the Las Campanas Observatory high in the mountainous Atacama Desert of Chile. He has served as Vice-President of the American Astronomical Society, and President of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.
His research interests have covered a wide range of topics including early history of the expanding universe, the study of quasars and of the gas between galaxies, the transfer of radiation through absorbing gases, and of the evolution of the first galaxies to form in the universe. His research has combined both theory and observation and he has used the world's largest and most powerful ground-based telescopes in his work, as well as extensive use of the Hubble Space Telescope, for which he was a member of two of the teams which designed and built some of its instruments.
Since retiring and moving to Atascadero, Ray has been interested in math and science public education, for both adults and students, and he has done volunteer tutoring of students in advanced math subjects at Atascadero High School.
Starting around 2008, Ray became especially interested in public education concerning the basic science of climate change. Since then, he has conducted a series of public lectures on this topic at Cuesta College as well as many presentations to community organizations. He has also communicated with many of the leading climate scientists of the world via personal interviews, telephone and email, and has studied dozens of original research papers on climate change science.