Today (October 17) at noon, the Clinton School presents a look inside the Apollo missions.

In celebrating the 50th anniversary of Apollo, the nation’s attention returned to the minute-to-minute missions, the brave astronauts, and the political machinery that launched the program.

We can also pause to ask: How exactly did the engineers solve so many daunting problems from scratch – from unstable engines and extreme temperatures to the many unknowns of regions beyond Earth’s orbit? This presentation will crawl into Apollo’s chariot, revisiting some fascinating and lesser known engineering stories, informed at every step by interviews with the Apollo-era engineers. Importantly, what did we learn and what are we still learning from America’s first moon missions?

Brandon R. Brown is Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of San Francisco, where he has also served as department chair, associate dean for sciences, and director of external affairs. His research work has spanned high-temperature superconductivity and sensory biophysics. His writing for non-physicists includes two books, “Planck” (2015) and “The Apollo Chronicles” (2019), as well as columns and articles in Scientific American, Smithsonian, Slate and other outlets. He completed a bachelor’s degree in physics at Rice University, a Ph.D. in condensed matter physics at Oregon State University, and post-doctoral training in science communication at the University of California, Santa Cruz. 

All Clinton School Speaker Series events are free and open to the public. Reserve your seats by emailing publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu or by calling (501) 683-5239.