By Claudia Knutsson
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
Dr. Donald Lubowich first fell in love with science when he visited the planetarium in Chicago as a small child. Now, he uses science programs to reach out to young children and their families with the hope of inspiring future scientists.
His NASA-funded program, Music and Astronomy Under the Stars (MAUS) has reached more than 50,000 people. As they share their love of music, they also learn a thing or two about science.
“We’ve done over 60 concerts … where we had people and bands as famous as … Deep Purple, James Taylor, Wilco, Yo-Yo Ma and Phish perform at MAUS events,” Lubowich said.
Since the start of Lubowich’s programs like MAUS, $400,000 in NASA astronomy outreach grants has been awarded to Hofstra.
“I started the Stars on Sundays program at Hofstra, where the public is invited to come to look through the telescopes to look at the stars and planets.” Lubowich said, recalling the first time he started inviting the general public to look at the stars from the rooftop.
Now, there are so many people attending his Sunday event that he has to limit the amount of attendees each week. He even has Girl Scouts approaching him, saying that they would rather look through a telescope than visit a water park.
The astronomy professor not only holds events here at Hofstra, but he also travels to numerous cities and holds events that educate the general public on the many wonders of the universe.
Lubowich also holds programs at the Ronald McDonald House of Long Island (RMH-LI) where he shows critically ill children and their families the stars and planets. He also holds edible demonstrations like the Big Bang Chocolate Chip Cookie, a fun experiment with M&M’s that engages children learning about science. At the beginning of the demonstration, the M&M’s on the cookie dough are three centimeters apart. After the cookie comes out of the oven, the M&M’s are seven centimeters apart, demonstrating the expansion of the universe.
Lubowich’s goal is to inspire people who would not necessarily go to the planetarium or a science museum to understand the importance of the subject. He started MAUS in hopes to reach different groups of people, and it is working.
“The idea was to bring astronomy to the public where people are already outside at night, looking at the sky and listening to beautiful music,” Lubowich said. “So I thought if they are already out there, they might be interested in actually learning something about the sky, learning something about astronomy.”
His programs have now reached distant cities such as Chicago and Washington D.C. Back in 2010, Lubowich created and started Hofstra’s Astronomy Festival on the National Mall (AFNM), which was co-sponsored by The White House (Office of Science and Technology Policy). This Hofstra-funded program is still in motion and is getting bigger each year.
“My goal this year is to get 10,000 people to come to the National Mall,” Lubowich said.
Hofstra alumna Claudia Balthazar says she is excited to attend AFNM this year with her family.
“I plan to take my little sisters and nieces to D.C. this summer to visit the space museum and other events that deals with STEM,” she said. “I think it’s smart to get young girls of color involved with STEM at a young age because the field has so much to offer and their public schools do not push for such advancement.”
Lubowich will continue to engage the general public so that he can inspire the scientists of the future.