Part scientist, part teacher, part public relations administrator, Frank N. Bash has served since 1989 as director of McDonald Observatory, the astronomy complex operated by The University of Texas at Austin in the remote Davis Mountains of West Texas.

As a scientist-administrator, his greatest accomplishment to date has been oversight of the construction of the 11-meter Hobby-Eberly Telescope, an internationally acclaimed instrument that contains the world's largest primary mirror.

As a PR man, he has expanded the public-outreach programs of the observatory, promoting StarDate, the syndicated two-minute radio program heard by millions each day in English, Spanish, and German, and planning a new Visitors' Center that will host hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

As a teacher, he explains the mind-boggling concepts of space in terms of pancakes, basketballs, farmers gathering rainwater with buckets, and raisin cakes rising in ovens.

Frank Bash is doing it all. As he explains, "Astronomers are very evangelistic. They love to talk about it, love to teach it."

He loves his job.

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