Vahé PeroomianVahé Peroomian is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Southern California. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in Physics from the University of California at Los Angeles. He was awarded a National Research ouncil postdoctoral fellowship at the Aerospace Corporation, after which he returned to UCLA to carry out research in magnetospheric physics with funding from NASA and the National Science Foundation. During nearly three decades of research, he gave over 200 invited and contributed presentations at scientific conferences and published over 60 research papers in refereed journals. Dr. Peroomian has devoted himself to teaching undergraduate physics courses and general education astronomy courses for the last 25 years. While at UCLA, he was awarded the Outstanding Teaching Award by the Department of Physics and Astronomy for each of the 9 academic years he taught there. At USC, he received the 2019–2020 General Education Teaching Award, and he was selected for the inaugural Interdisciplinary Teaching Program Grant and the inaugural iPodia Faculty Fellows Program. From 2005 to 2020, Dr. Peroomian served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Glendale Community College in Glendale, California, a city-wide elected position to which he was reelected three times. Dr. Peroomian is an avid hiker and photographer and is often on road trips with his wife, Carolyn, and with his children. He has published two books of essays and photographs, "A Photographic Journey of my Homeland, Armenia" and "Ode to the Eastern Sierra." Read More Read Less