A Public Lecture by Professor Donald Kurtz (University of Central Lancashire).
Days, Weeks, Months, Years and more: Hear about Roman Emperors, Zulu Wars, Rider Haggard, Thomas Hardy, the English time riots, and how the days of the week got their names in this amusing and informative tour of the calendar.
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. He is now a British citizen and has been Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Central Lancashire since 2001. He is a councillor of the Royal Astronomical Society. Don observes with some of the largest telescopes in the world, has over 2000 nights at the telescope, and over 400 professional publications. He is the discoverer of a class of pulsating, magnetic stars that are the most peculiar stars known. 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 an outdoorsman and has travelled widely. Don enthusiastically gives public lectures to diverse audiences all over the world on a wide range of topics.