In celebration of the International Year of Astronomy, JCC will sponsor “Missing Spots on the Sun: Anything Wrong?,” a presentation by JCC alumnus Darren Williams, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Penn State Erie, The Behrend Campus, at 7 p.m. on October 7.

The program, free and open to the public, will be presented in the Lenna Teleconference Theatre on JCC’s Jamestown Campus. Program sponsors are JCC’s physics department and the college program committee of JCC’s Faculty Student Association.

During his presentation, Dr. Williams will discuss what is known of sunspots, the history of sunspot observations, and the possible link between the appearance of sunspots and changes to the Earth’s climate.

Dr. Williams, who graduated in 1990 from JCC, has authored or coauthored several research papers on the origin and evolution of habitable planets, and his research has been featured in Nature, National Geographic, Astronomy, Sky and Telescope Astrobiology, and Discover magazines.

Dr. Williams earned a B.S. in physics at the University of Pittsburgh and a Ph.D. in astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State in 1998. A NASA-funded graduate student fellow from 1995 to 1998, he was the 1996 winner of the Geophysical Society of America Stephen Dwornik award for planetary science. He received the Behrend College Council of Fellows Excellence in Research Award in 2005.

His research interests include the climate and habitability of Earth and Earth-like worlds, comet and asteroid impacts on Earth, and the characterization of extrasolar planets.