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| Tom Fleming teaching an astronomy class in the FullDome theater at Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium. (Photo credit: Jacob Chinn/UA Alumni Association) |
It all began with a man who was fired for being a good scientist and the wife of the man who started Quaker Oats. One hundred years later, the University of Arizona is the nation's leading university in research dollars expended for astronomical and space sciences.
One hundred years ago, on Oct. 14, Rufus von KleinSmid, then president of the University of Arizona, canceled all classes. Students celebrated with a pep rally and a bonfire, and a press conference was called to announce the first big grant the University had ever received at the time.
An anonymous donor had donated $60,000 – about $1.3 million in today's money – "to build a telescope of huge size."
That gift would transform a dusty patch of farmland into one of the world's powerhouses of astronomy.
UANews asked UA astronomer Thomas Fleming, whose lectures have inspired the public and students alike, how astronomy got off the ground at the Tucson campus.
Read the interview: UofA.edu