Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1991

Associate Professor, Astronomer/Educator, Tennessee State University, Center of Excellence in Information Systems

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Geoffrey Burks has the slashed title of Astronomer/Educator in the Center for Information Systems. He is working to become a user-friendly astronomer, and wants to act as a conduit for information between the education side and the astronomy side of the center and the center's Explorers of the Universe Project. He was born in Tennessee, but went to Chicago after high school. He received a B.A., M.S., and Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. His graduate school research had to do with the gas and dust between stars, called the interstellar medium. He also studied the outskirts of our galaxy. He did post-doctoral research at the University of Colorado, where he felt the pull toward teaching. He has held teaching positions at Albuquerque T-VI and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.

He is presently interested in variable stars, the Galactic Halo, and the intergalactic medium (the gas between galaxies), on the astronomy side. He is looking for better and more effective ways to teach astronomy, on the education side. There is never a dull moment and so much to learn.