Name:       Mary Crone Odekon

Title:          Associate Professor, Physics

Education:  Ph.D. in Physics from The University of Michigan (1995)
                   B.S. in Physics, The College of William and Mary (1990)

Dissertation: The Cosmological Dependence of Galaxy Cluster Morphologies

Appointments: Assistant Professor and Lubin Chair, Skidmore College 1997-2003
Postdoctoral Research Associate and Visiting Lecturer, The University of Pittsburgh
Visiting Scientist, The University of Washington
University Fellow and Research Assistant, The University of Michigan
Predoctoral Fellow, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Teaching focus: Astronomy, Galaxies and Cosmology, Mechanics, Colonization of Space

Research focus: Computer simulations of extremely large-scale galactic superclusters; and using Hubble Space Telescope data to understand the history of individual galaxies by comparing stellar content to theoretical models of stellar evolution.

Why Skidmore? “A small and selective liberal arts college like Skidmore – where I can teach and work with students one-on-one -- is lots more interesting and rewarding to me than running a large lab.”

Details: Proud of all her students including recent grads at Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Leeds, and the Skidmore-Dartmouth 3/2 Engineering program; involved in K-12 outreach in the nearby Ballston Spa school system to build a scale model of the solar system that spread over town; considered a career in physics as early as first grade, but didn’t settle on it until she was an undergrad at William and Mary; hails from a family of scientists: sister is a biology professor, brother a statistician, father a retired math professor, and mother a retired computer programmer; enjoys exploring the world with her husband, Skidmore Economics professor Mehmet Odekon.

Next project: MAK III – An interdisciplinary collaboration with Studio Art professor Margo Mensing – inspired by George Crumb’s Music for a Summer Evening Makrokosmos III -- that explores the human sensorium’s ability to see, feel, and hear dynamic and even catastrophic stellar events which take place on human timescales. Opens at Skidmore’s Tang Museum in October 2004.