Randy Landsberg

After studying chemistry at the University of Chicago, Randy Landsberg has worked in education/outreach at the Museum of Science and Industry, Argonne National Labs, and for a variety of scientific collaborations, including the South Pole Telescope, CARMA.

Now Randy is the Director of Education and Outreach at the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics (KICP) and U Chicago’s Dept. of Astronomy & Astrophysics: Randy directs the Space Explorers Program for south-side Chicago teens interested in science, runs the Cafe Scientifique, coordinates a ravely reviewed science communication program run by the Alan Alda Center, facilitates collaboration between the Adler Planetarium (as well as other Chicagoland museums) and the KICP, and helps keep the L3 program going.

Randy has been an indispensable part of our Lifelong Learning effort from the beginning. Randy helped Dan shape his ideas into a winning proposal for funding to the NSF, helping Dan secure the Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship (AAPF) that funded Dan’s science and outreach. We would never have gotten started without Randy’s help.

Once Dan arrived in Chicago, Randy consulted and assisted with speaker recruitment, venue selection, and advised on management of the program. Randy and Dan vetted speakers, gave feedback to speakers prior to their talk. Randy also connected Dan with Karen Kolb Flude, a Chicago gerontologist who provided essential feedback on reaching older adults effectively, pointed us towards expanding to the public library system, and conducted a series of indispensable trainings for our presenters.

Now that Dan has moved on to Haverford, Randy, as well a team including Dan Scolnic, Andrew Long, and Erik Shirokoff are continuing the L3 effort.