Date: Mar 28, 2007

HOFSTRA ASTRONOMY OUTREACH BRINGS STAR- GAZING TO HOSPITALIZED KIDS AND THEIR FAMILIES

Hofstra professor coordinated NASA grant for Ronald McDonald House

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY - Hofstra University's astronomy outreach program will bring the stars and Saturn's rings down to earth for hospitalized children and their families at the Ronald McDonald House of Long Island on Thursday, March 29 at 7:30 p.m.

Donald A. Lubowich, research scientist and Hofstra's astronomy outreach coordinator who runs the monthly "Stars on Sunday" star-gazing program, will provide hands-on observations of the moon, Saturn, and the stars. The program is tailored for children and includes "edible demonstrations" using chocolate, nuts and marshmallows to explain the formation of the Earth.

The program was made possible through a NASA Initiative to Develop Education through Astronomy and Space Science (IDEAS) outreach grant awarded to Prof. Lubowich and used to purchase a telescope for the Ronald McDonald House. IDEAS is administered by the Space Telescope Science Institute.

The Ronald McDonald House is located on the campus of Schneider Children's Hospital at 267-07 76th Ave., New Hyde Park. For more information, call (718) 343-5683.

Prof. Lubowich has conducted astronomical and astrophysical research in nuclear astrophysics, cosmology, stellar and galactic evolution and interstellar chemistry. He created the first Astronomical Student Research Assistant Program at Hofstra and has had articles about his research published in Nature and in the Boston Globe, Newsday, Astronomy Magazine, Astronomy Now Magazine and the Italian science magazine, Galileo.

The Ronald McDonald House of Long Island provides families a home-away-from-home during their child's treatment at local hospitals. The facility has served more than 10,000 families since 1986, with more than half coming from the boroughs of New York and Long Island.

Hofstra University is a dynamic private institution where students find their edge to succeed in more than 140 undergraduate and 155 graduate programs in liberal arts and sciences, business, communication, education and allied human services, and honors studies, as well as a School of Law. With a student-faculty ratio of 14-to-1, our professors teach small classes averaging 23 students that emphasize interaction, critical thinking and analysis.