NEW YORK – There are Greek-Americans who have built porches and garages that resemble the Parthenon as a tribute to the architectural achievements of the Greeks, but how many have so honored the Hellenic legacy in other fields of endeavor?
Jim Fakatselis is a professor of Astronomy at Queensboro Community college, but as devoted as he is to his students, he can’t wait to get into his backyard observatory, which he built in 2009 to house the equipment he amassed through the years.
Using his iPhone he can open the roof, point the telescope, and take a picture automatically. Filters and advanced software enable him to overcome light pollution and generate extraordinary images. Technology give him power Galileo could not dream of.
Some obstacles cannot be overcome, however. “I was up through 3AM yesterday taking pictures. Then the clouds came in and I had to go to sleep.”
When he spots interesting things, he shares them with people in the relevant field, but the chief beneficiaries of his astrophotography hobby – which trumps his love of fishing and woodworking – are his students.
He took a winding path to teaching – after his formal studies he also took a detour when he opened up a ski resort in at the famous Greek-owned Olympia Hotel in Wyndham, NY – but it is understandable that he made his way to academia. While he never had mentors or career guides – “I was kind of on my own” – he always revered his teachers.
As he began to think of retirement after working for the Sperry Gyroscope Company for 18 years designing and building laser gyroscopes, and then managing the laser gyroscope department of Allied Signal and then as the chief scientist developing new products when it was bought by L-3 Communications, Fakatselis received a call from a former classmate who became the head of the physics department at Queensboro Community College.
He jumped at the invitation to teach one astronomy class – he now teachers five – but the decision did not come out of the blue. That life pattern began at Sperry, where he was asked to present one course on laser gyros and ended up teaching there for 16 years. The return of Halley’s comment in 1986 also rekindled his childhood interest in astronomy.
His late devotion to teaching is complemented by a deep respect for his students.
“A lot of professors will pick up an astronomy textbook and teach it from there. I do real astronomy. I know what’s in the news and can take pictures and bring them in to discuss with the class and they see my zealousness.”
The word “intensity” also applies, perhaps reflecting his growing up an only child. But there was always love and companionship. He was surrounded by cousins on his block and by friends at the St. Demetrios Day School.
At St. John’s Prep high school he was salutatorian, flashing the potential that made him a standout in the aerospace industry…and hinted at other possibilities.
Greeks say “everything happens for a reason” – but one can respond “unless it’s an accident.” Fakatselis had some interesting accidents in his professional life.
He received a scholarship to Columbia University’s school of engineering, but when he was accepted by the physics program at Cooper Union – on full scholarship – he said “absolutely.”
Astronomy was also on his report card, so when he went to graduate school at SUNY Stony Brook and began to do research in on the mysterious behavior of neutrinos that originated in the interior of the sun.
“In 1976 I read about Dr. Ray Davis, who was doing pioneering work on the problem at the nearby Brookhaven national lab, who agreed to take me on as a grad student.”
Stony Brook told him he either had to take on one of its own professors’ projects’ or transfer – but when Fakatselis learned that would entail taking a load of exams, he chose not to pursue it.
“Ten years ago Davis won the Nobel prize for that problem. I would have been part of the team,” he told TNH.
But luck and both seizing and missing opportunities are an integral part of the immigrant experience.
His father, Spiros, was born in Epiros. “My grandfather was a chef at the Copa Cabana, and brought my father to the U.S. at 16.” Spiros began working as a furrier, then owned a coffee shop in Manhattan and then opened a huge diner in New Jersey. Fakatselis’ uncle Alkis was a linotype operator for the National Herald and his American-born mother, Pauline Yiotis, also had roots in Epiros.
None of their paths through life could have been foretold – but astronomy is all about fixed paths.
Fakatselis spoke about Perseid meteor showers that occur between July 17 and August 24. “You can almost set your watch by when they come through.”
Those shooting stars have a prosaic reality however. When a comet passes, they leave dust and debris in their paths and when the Earth travels through, the little particles – the size of grains of sand – come into the atmosphere and are called meteors. “If they are big enough and reach the grounded they are meteorites.”
He is fascinated by dramatic projects like the search for habitable planets – with painstaking work astronomers can spot the telltale signs like eclipses and perturbations in stars’ motions – and by the speculative aspects of astronomy like black holes and dark matter and energy.
“A lot of people always ask me ‘do you think there is other life in the universe>’ and I say ‘absolutely.’” With billions of galaxies each with billions of stars, “the possibilities are literally astronomical…how we communicate with them is another thing,” he said.
Fakatselis bent the minds of his lunchtime visitors a bit with fascinating talk of Einstein’s relativity and large masses twisting space and time, but people are most interested in learning about Pluto, the beloved celestial object that got demoted from planet to…what?
“In 2006 the International Astronomical Union had a meeting to decide on the definition of a planet,” because so many large objects are being discovered, but Pluto meets only two of the three criteria.
“It just doesn’t have enough to be a planet,” he said.
His wife, Pamela, who was born in the United States as were her parents – her ancestors are Greeks who lived in Marseilles, Constantinople, and Sparta – is supportive of Fakatselis’ return to astronomy.
Their son, Paul, is also an aficionado, but the latter turned to another of Fakatselis’ passions, music. He plays guitar and piano and Fakatselis was lead singer is a rock band in his youth, and plays guitar – and bouzouki
Fakatselis was fascinated by math – he is enjoying reading “Is God a Mathematician” by Mario Livio – and space since childhood.
When he was asked if he ever thought of going into space, he said, “That would be really something. I would love to do it.”
“Even though it’s risky and stuff blows up?” TNH followed up.
“I’d be there in a minute.”
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