Dr. Lucy Frear Fortson
Vice President for Research at the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum

Dr. Lucy Fortson is the Vice President for Research at the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum in Chicago. She oversees the research and public understanding of research programs in the departments of Astronomy, History of Astronomy and Education. Dr. Fortson also develops many of the EPO activities at Adler herself. She has developed the themes, written content and interactives for three museum galleries covering over 10,000 square feet. She has been Project Director for three Planetarium shows in Adler's StarRider Virtual Reality theater. Dr. Fortson contributes to Adler's Teacher Professional Development programs through planning and participation as a content provider. She gives numerous lectures and presentations on astronomy and education topics to school classes, corporate events and continuing education groups. Dr. Fortson also serves on numerous local and national committees including most recently the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate Advisory Committee (MPSAC) for the National Science Foundation, the Astrophysics Science Subcommittee of the NASA Advisory Council (NAC), programming for the International Year of Astronomy, the MacArthur Foundation’s ScienceChicago 2009 and the University of Chicago’s Center for Elementary Math and Science Education.

Dr. Fortson graduated with a BA in Physics and Astronomy from Smith College in 1984. She then worked for a year with the Space Telescope Science Institute prior to the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope before attending graduate school at UCLA. Dr. Fortson received her Ph.D. from UCLA in 1991 in High Energy Physics working at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. In her postdoctoral years, she applied experimental techniques from particle physics to astrophysics problems as the field of high-energy astrophysics was opening up. In 1993, Dr. Fortson moved back to the United States with a research associate position at the University of Chicago. Continuing her work in high-energy astrophysics, she worked on the Chicago Air Shower Array and the Pierre Auger Observatory. She led the BLANCA project which provided the most accurate measurement of the change in composition for high energy cosmic rays. In 1997, Dr. Fortson joined the research faculty at the Adler Planetarium, continuing her work in the study of gamma-ray astronomy and cosmic-ray physics. In 2001, Dr. Fortson became Director of Astronomy at the Adler and in 2004, became Vice President for Research.

Currently, Dr. Fortson is the Adler team PI on the VERITAS Collaboration. VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) is a ground-based observatory with an array of four 12-m optical reflectors for gamma-ray astronomy that complements NASA’s GLAST mission. Dr. Fortson’s primary science goals are related to the study of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and using multi-wavelength observations to determine the properties of the black hole engine at the centers of AGN. Additionally, Dr. Fortson is leading the VERITAS education and public outreach efforts.

Dr. Fortson is also deeply committed to improving the science literacy of all Americans by providing opportunities for all ages to learn science by doing science. As an example of Adler programs that engage students, teachers and the public in real research, Dr. Fortson leads the CyberInfrastructure Training, Education, Advancement and Mentoring (CI-TEAM) program at the Adler. Supported by the National Science Foundation, the Adler, in collaboration with Northwestern University, John's Hopkins, Berkeley and the University of Chicago provides opportunities for high school teachers and their students to become involved in research on Variable Quasars using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and follow-up measurements with remotely operable optical telescopes. The project is national in scope and is based on web tools and services designed for a collaborative online environment that allows for participants to peer-review their work and for strong mentorship opportunities. The results of the students’ research are published in an online catalog.

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