IRA MARK EGDALL
Entertaining author, teacher, and speaker on the wonders of the universe in everyday language.
Ira Mark Egdall received his undergraduate degree in physics from Northeastern University. He recently retired from a 35-year engineering and program management career in the U.S. aerospace industry. He now teaches lay courses in modern physics he created at Lifelong Learning Institutes at the University of Miami, Florida International University, and Nova Southeastern University. Course material includes particle physics, quantum mechanics, special relativity, general relativity, and cosmology. For information on Mark’s courses, please go to: http://www.marksmodernphysics.com
Mark also gives entertaining talks on Einstein and time travel to the general public, often dressed as “Grandpa Albert”. He is a popular science writer for DecodedScience.com, a website dedicated to explaining the latest science news in plain language. Mark has been published in The Physics Teacher magazine, the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers journal, and the Hollywood Beach Cahoots Quarterly. His posts and blog, “It’s Relative”, appear on ScienceForums.net. In addition, he has appeared on NBC6-TV Miami dressed as Grandpa Albert.
In his aerospace career, Mark served as program manager for state-of-the-art infrared sensor systems and focal planes for NASA and DOD, while at BAE SYSTEMS in Lexington, Massachusetts. He also worked on large telescope systems, high-energy laser optics, Hubble Space Telescope studies, and the first operational adaptive optics system, while at Itek Optical Systems in the same city.
When not thinking about physics, Mark spends his time driving his wife of 45 years crazy and playing with his grandchildren.