• Fleisch Facts
• Eye-Opening Experience

When Daniel Fleisch, assistant professor of physics, viewed the Egyptian hieroglyphic display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, he paused to study and reflect on its roots.

He then bought a book with instructions on how to read the ancient language.

“I saw it as a letter from 2,000 years ago that I thought we needed to read,” said Fleisch, whose contagious love of learning and passion for his craft consistently inspire students, colleagues, children and adults.

Add to those accolades a witty sense of humor and a willingness to help students at all costs, and Fleisch easily becomes the obvious choice for this year’s Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching, Wittenberg’s most prestigious faculty prize.

Receiving the award proved overwhelming for the 52-year-old astronomer who admitted that he almost fell out of the pew in Weaver Chapel after hearing the news. “It was so unexpected. I was stunned.”

His reaction seems ironic considering that he has left thousands stunned and awe-struck following their first encounter with the final frontier through his treasured telescopes.

From schoolchildren to college students to the local community, Fleisch has taken people to the stars and back using the ever-expanding universe as his guide.

“I’m a person for whom the life of the mind is such a driving force,” he said, “so watching others have those ‘wow’ moments is most rewarding.” Fleisch has experienced many such moments throughout his life.

One occurred at the age of 8 when he received the Golden Book of Astronomy. The book, a gift from his parents, expanded his heavenly horizons, piqued his interest in space phenomena and set his imagination on fire.

From there, Fleisch pondered the field of astronomy, eventually pursuing degrees in physics, space physics and astronomy at Georgetown University and Rice University followed by a 20-year industry career in systems development and electromagnetics as a senior scientist, vice president, chief scientist and executive vice president.

Throughout his industry career, Fleisch worked with leading authorities in his field, including Bill Hunsinger, designer of the Acoustic Charge Transport, Bill Gordon, builder of Arecibo, home to the largest radio telescope in the world, and John Kraus, the premiere radio astronomer at The Ohio State University with whom Fleisch co-authored the textbook

Electromagnetics With Applications. Cornell University, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the University of Iowa and other leading research institutions have since adopted the textbook for use in junior and senior-level electromagnetics courses.

The collaboration with Kraus has also generated e-mails of inquiry from around the world.“I have managed to work with some of the most brilliant people just by dumb luck,” Fleisch said.

Some might argue that he simply has never allowed an opportunity to escape him.

“When the skies get clear, you have to go no matter the time,” he regularly tells students, perhaps not realizing that such a directive reveals much about his personality and his approach to teaching.

For him the sky, or in his case, the universe, is indeed the limit and students should settle for nothing less.“I’ve worked with fantastic students at Wittenberg, and I want them to be engaged with the world around them.”

Toward that end, Fleisch has accompanied students to Stonehenge to visit astronomically significant sites, and later this year, he hopes to travel with students to the University of California’s Lick Observatory, which conducts cutting-edge research to answer the most profound questions in observational astronomy.

In addition, Fleisch, who regularly relies on the concept of “quality circles” to obtain student feedback each semester and believes strongly in inquiry-based learning, recently designed an intermediate course for his students emphasizing hands-on learning using astronomical instrumentation and data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

At the same time, Fleisch also strives to make time for his students regardless of the hour because he believes they deserve the best educational experience possible.

From answering a question at 4 a.m. to a one-on-one talk in his Barbara Deer Kuss Science Center office, Fleisch is on call and ready to listen 24/7.

He even drove the 40 miles from Columbus, where he lived for the first four years of his tenure, to Springfield twice in one night to assist a student with research at Weaver Observatory.

“It’s important for students to struggle with a problem and work through it, but if I can help resolve something in a few minutes so that a student can continue the research, I will,” he said.

Fleisch has also extended that helpful hand to the Springfield community he now calls home as well as to alumni and area schools.

In his six years at Wittenberg, Fleisch has volunteered his time to lead tours of Weaver Observatory, to speak to alumni during special events, to fill backpacks with astronomy-related reading for the area’s Literacy Center, and to visit schools in the hopes of igniting the imaginations of today’s youth.

More than 3,000 people have also taken him up on his humorous invitations to stargaze at Weaver Observatory since 1998.

Using e-mail subject lines that read: “Moon, Jupiter, Weaver” or “There is a little black spot on the sun Tuesday,” Fleisch has managed to connect with both the Wittenberg and Springfield communities in ways that have allowed people to see beyond themselves, literally and figuratively.

“My life was better because I learned those hieroglyphs,” Fleisch explained, because in doing so, “I learned to realize some depth and beauty in the world.

I try to give that same experience to people through astronomy, and it doesn’t get any better than this.”