Scientists need hobbies. The grueling work of navigating complex theory and the politics of academia can get to a person, even one as laid back as Brown University professor and astrophysicist Stephon Alexander. So Alexander plays the saxophone, though at this point it may not be accurate to call his avocation a spare time pursuit, since John Coltrane has become as important to him as Einstein, Kepler, and Newton.

Brown faculty to confer highest honor on preeminent scholars in physics, public health

Francine Jackson is a Lincoln resident, an astronomer, a teacher, a conservationist, a history buff, and, believe it or not, now the name of an asteroid.

For as long as she can remember, Jackson said she’s been fascinated by the sky, the stars, and the history they carry.

“A few years ago, I ran into someone I went to high school with in a parking lot. I probably hadn’t seen her since we were teenagers, but she told me she immediately recognized me because when I got out of my car, I looked straight up at the sky, and that was something she always remembered me doing,” Jackson said.