Herbst Receives NSF Grant for Astronomy Consortium

Bill Herbst, the John Monroe Van Vleck Professor of Astronomy, received a grant for $471,990 from the National Science Foundation. The grant will provide summer research stipends for students and funds for an Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium with the Keck Northeast Astronomy Consortium (KNAC).

KNAC is a group of consisting of Wesleyan and seven other institutions (Colgate, Haverford, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Vassar, Wellesley and Williams) that have worked together to improve research experiences for undergraduate astronomy majors.

KNAC was formed 20 years ago with a seed grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation and has been supported in recent years by the NSF. Hundreds of students have been served during this time and many are now professional astronomers or scientists in other fields, Herbst says.