Bio
Claes is co-founder of the Cosmic Ray Observation Project (CROP), started in 1999. Funded through the National Science Foundation, the project has a two-fold purpose: to study patterns of arriving cosmic particles and to interest high school students in science careers, particularly in physics. Claes is chair of UNL’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. He is a former high school physics and mathematics teacher who holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern University. He conducted postdoctoral research at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He has been on UNL’s faculty since 1996. Claes uses comic book superheroes to discuss physics topics through UNL’s Speakers Bureau. http://speakersbureau.unl.edu/speakers