Prof. Donald Kurtz

Professor

Computing, Engineering & Physical Sciences

Leighton Building, Le 211

+44 (0)1772 893735

dwkurtz@uclan.ac.uk

Don Kurtz is Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Central Lancashire. His research is in asteroseismology and magnetic stars and he teaches the undergraduate introductory astrophysics course, as well as other courses.  Don also presents dozens of public talks around the world each year on a variety of astronomic topics.

Don Kurtz was born in San Diego, California to an American father and Canadian mother. He obtained his PhD in astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin in 1976, then spent 25 years in South Africa at the University of Cape Town from postdoc to professor. Since 2001 he has been Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK.
Don observes with some of the largest telescopes in the world, has over 2000 nights at the telescope. He is the discoverer of a class of pulsating, magnetic stars that are the most peculiar stars known, the rapidly oscillating Ap stars.
He is a member of the steering committee of the Kepler Asteroseismic Science Consortium, and is co-author of the fundamental textbook, “Asteroseismology”.  He is past-president of the International Astronomical Union Commission on Variable Stars.
Don is an outdoorsman and has travelled widely. He enthusiastically gives public lectures to diverse audiences all over the world on a wide range of topics.

Qualifications:

Ph.D. Astronomy, University of Texas, 1976
M.A. Astronomy, University of Texas, 1972
B.A. Astronomy and Physics, San Diego State University, 1970

Membership of professional and learned bodies:

Fellow, Royal Astronomical Society
Member, International Astronomical Union

Publications:

Don Kurtz has over 380 professional publications. These can easily be accessed via the NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) at
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html
under “authors” enter “Kurtz,D.” and then hit the “send query” button. Similar access to the publications of all astronomers can be found this way.

Teaching

AA1051 – Introductory Astrophysics
AA 2001 – Astrophysics 2
AA3010 – Stellar structure and evolution