Wayne Schlingman is the new director of the Ohio State Planetarium. Credit: Courtesy of OSU

Wayne Schlingman is the new director of the Ohio State Planetarium.
Credit: Courtesy of OSU

Ohio State has a new director of its planetarium.

Wayne Schlingman was announced to fill the role in a Wednesday release on an OSU website.

He was hired as the planetarium’s first official director on July 14, OSU spokeswoman Amy Murray said in an email. His annual salary is set to be $68,004.
He will replace Catherine Grier, who was hired as a postdoctoral researcher and planetarium director until a permanent search could begin following the completion of a major renovation in October 2013, Murray said. Her salary was $49,008.
Before coming to OSU, Schlingman worked at the Center for Astronomy Education at the University of Arizona where he researched the teaching and learning of general astronomy education.

His areas of expertise are astronomy education and outreach and radio astronomy and star formation in the Milky Way, the release said.

In his role at OSU, Schlingman will work with the OSU and surrounding communities, helping them take advantage of the planetarium, which recently got a $620,000 makeover.

“I am excited to begin a new journey as the planetarium director,” Schlingman said in the release. “The past eight months since the renovation have shown the incredible value of being able to use an immersive, full-dome theater for public outreach and classroom exploration. Seeing the annual attendance explode more than 10 times that of previous years is a great way to kick off the new facility and to show how great the need is for it. I look forward to continuing to grow annual attendance.”

The Ohio State Planetarium is located on the 5th floor of Smith Laboratory at 174 W. 18th Ave.

 

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Aug. 2, 2014, with the salary information for Schlingman and Grier.