Richard Poss is an Associate Professor of Astronomy, and former Director of the Undergraduate Humanities Program, at the University of Arizona. His research examines the role of astronomical themes in European poetry, and he has published articles on Dante, Petrarch, Veronica Gambara, Walt Whitman, Thomas Hardy, and on the exploration of Mars. He teaches courses on the history of astronomy and the relations between astronomy and the arts, and is a frequent instructor with the university’s Humanities Seminars program. He has won a variety of teaching awards.