The National Space Club (NSC) has awarded the 2019 Space Educator: Lifetime Achievement Award to Andrew Fraknoi, astronomy professor at the Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning at the University of San Francisco. Fraknoi is the first astronomy educator to receive the prize. The award ci tation honors Fraknoi for “his career as an award-winning astronomy educator, innovator, author, and key link communicating our expanding knowledge of the universe. It adds, “His books, textbooks, virtual curriculum, public activities, and interaction with students and audiences numbering in the thousands have inspired and engaged the American public in the exploration of space.
Andrew Fraknoi
Fraknoi accepted his award at the NSC’s 62nd Annual Robert Goddard Memorial Dinner on March 22, 2019, in Washington, D.C., in the company of some 2,000 aerospace industry, exploration, and education leaders. Fraknoi was previously chair of astronomy at Foothill College in Los Altos, California, and before that served fourteen years as executive director of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.