2/26/2008
DAVID CLOUSTON

One of Salina Central High School’s most distinquished alumni — astronaut Steve Hawley — is leaving his post with NASA in Houston to join the faculty of the University of Kansas this fall to teach and promote education in science and math.

Hawley is scheduled to appear with KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at Central High to make the announcement. The Salina visit is one of four stops the pair have planned; the others are at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Kansas Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, followed by the Statehouse in Topeka and the Dole Institute of Politics on KU’s Lawrence campus.

Hawley graduated from then Salina High School (now Central) in 1969, and from the University of Kansas in 1973 with degrees in physics and astronomy.

He is a veteran of multiple space missions and is in the Astronaut Hall of Fame and Central’s Mustang Hall of Fame.

Hawley said his new role at KU fulfills a longtime desire to return to Kansas, adding that the mission of promoting interest in science is a perfect fit.

For more on Hawley's plans, read reporter David Clouston's story in Wednesday's Salina Journal.