October 2, 2017
Meet Rhiannon Blaauw, Wheaton's new Visiting Instructor of Physics. Before coming to Wheaton, she was modeling the meteoroid environment for NASA. Now, she's helping Wheaton students discover the beauty of God through an understanding of Physics.
Name: Rhiannon Blaauw
Education:
- B.Sc. Astrophysics, University of Western Ontario
- M.Sc. Astronomy, University of Western Ontario
- Currently working towards an M.A. in Science & Religion, Biola University
Philosophy of Education:
Helping students grow in their appreciation and pursuit truth, beauty, and goodness, and deepening their understanding of God and man
Before Wheaton, I was:
Before coming to Wheaton, I was working at NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO), which is located in Huntsville, Alabama, at the Marshall Space Flight Center. This office was established to understand the meteoroid environment as it pertains to spacecraft engineering and operations. The main products of the MEO are models used for spacecraft risk analysis. I also worked on space situational awareness.
Right now I'm working on:
Over the last six months, I've been examining data from meteoroid penetration panels to help understand the relative risk from sporadic meteors and meteor showers for spacecraft.
I feel God's pleasure when I:
I feel God's pleasure when I am working the telescopes on a still, clear evening. I'm almost always working alone, and it's a very worshipful experience.
Last book I read for fun:
- The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile. This book divides people into nine unique personality types and is a helpful tool to understand the particular sins your personality type is prone to fall into.
- Genesis 1-4 by John Collins. I'm currently reading this book, and it's a really fascinating commentary on Genesis.
Four people I'd like to take to coffee:
- Tim Keller
- C.S. Lewis
- Galileo
- Celine Dion