About
Join us on Thursday, April 4 at 5:30 p.m. for our Prince Lecture at Nichols School in the Flickinger Performing Arts Center. The Prince Lecture series was established in the mid 1970’s by S. Warren Prince, Jr., a Nichols graduate of the class of 1947 and President of Prince Rubber & Plastics Co, in honor of his father, Sidney Warren Prince, Sr. Each year a person of national renown is invited to Buffalo to serve as speaker for this long-standing series.
This year we welcome Dr. Jeffrey L. Linsky ‘59, as he speaks on the path of totality, details on the total solar eclipse that will take place at the Moon’s ascending node on Monday, April 8, 2024. What causes a solar eclipse? It’s an incredible cosmic coincidence! The sun is about 400 times larger in diameter than the moon, but the moon is about 400 times closer to Earth than the Sun. Because of this, the sun and the moon appear to be about the same size in our sky, which allows for a total solar eclipse.
This solar eclipse is special because it will be visible across North America to approximately thirty-one million people who live in its path, including right here in Buffalo, NY. The last time people had the opportunity to view this rare event in New York was 1925. The next total solar eclipse visible in New York is not until October 26, 2144 (120 years from 2024!)
About Dr. Jeffrey L. Linsky ‘59:
A graduate of Nichols School in 1959, Jeffrey L. Linsky is a Research Professor Emeritus at JILA, a joint research institute of the University of Colorado and the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado. He received his BS in Physics from MIT and his PhD in Astronomy from Harvard University.
His research areas include astrophysics, stellar radiation and winds, the abundance of deuterium in the universe, and the gas between stars. His studies in astrophysics are interdisciplinary in nature dealing with such issues as the effects of stellar radiation and winds on the ability of planets to retain their atmospheres and water, which are essential for life.
He is a co-investigator on the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope and on instruments on other NASA spacecraft.
In his lifetime, Linsky and his wife have traveled to see 13 solar eclipses.