PROFILE

GARYWEGNER PHYSICS

Claim to Fame: The Margaret Anne and Edward M. Leede '49 Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Wegner is best known for a groundbreaking 1985 find: "I worked on a project measuring the motion of our galaxy, and we discovered the Great Attractor, a large mass of galaxies and galaxy clusters that pulls most of the matter in this universe in its direction." He continues to study the nature of dark matter the mysterious invisible bulk of the universe detected only by its gravitational pull, and teaches Physics 3 and 4 and several astronomy listings. His favorites are graduate courses in observational cosmology and stellar dynamics.

C.V.: Received his B.A. from the University of Arizona in 1967, Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1971; arrived on campus in 1982. His list of academic appointments includes time in Cambridge and Oxford, England, Australia, South Africa and Germany. He also remotely directed the MDM Observatory at Kitt Peak, Arizona, a two-telescope outlook Dartmouth shares with the University of Michigan, Ohio State, Ohio University and Columbia. Now he visits biannually.

Off-campus: Born outside of Seattle, Wegner lives in Cornish, New Hampshire, with his wife of 41 years, Kay, an artist at the AVA gallery in nearby Lebanon. They have five grown children. He enjoys hiking, reading, writing science fiction novels and building rockets.