DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Karen Meech sits at her computer in her office at the University
of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy. She is involved in a project that
will fire a copper projectile into a comet, causing a crater seven
stories deep and as big as a football field. This will enable
scientists to see what's below the surface. The UH planetary
astronomer is one of three new members elected to the board
of directors of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. She
is also the director of TOPS, or Toward Other Planetary Systems.

UH scientist joins
astronomy board

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Star-Bulletin staff

Karen J. Meech, planetary astronomer in the University of Hawaii at Manoa's Institute for Astronomy, is one of three new members elected to the Astronomical Society of the Pacific's board of directors.

Meech said she is excited at her new appointment "because of the opportunities it will give me to impact science education and outreach and to work with other people actively involved in this area."

The other newly elected board members are comet hunter and author David H. Levy and former Sky & Telescope editor-in-chief Leif J. Robinson. Levy, author and editor of 29 books on astronomy, is also science editor for Parade magazine. Robinson recently retired from Sky & Telescope after nearly 40 years on the editorial staff, including 20 as editor-in-chief.

Meech's research involves the study of distant comets and their relationship to the early solar system and bioastronomy -- the potential for life in space. She also is vice president of the International Astronomical Union's Commission on Bioastronomy and will become its president next year.

Meech is a co-investigator on NASA's Deep Impact Mission, which will shoot a 160-pound copper impactor into Comet P/Tempel 1 in 2005. It should be visible from Hawaii at impact July 4 that year. She will coordinate all ground and Earth-orbital observing support for the mission.

The UH astronomer also is active in educational outreach, directing the National Science Foundation-funded teacher-enhancement program known as TOPS -- Toward Other Planetary Systems.

TOPS holds an annual summer workshop for local and Pacific science and math high school teachers and students. The three-week session is held on Oahu and on the Big Island at the Hawaii Preparatory Academy.

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Ka Leo O Hawaii
University of Hawaii