A Head in the Stars

By Jacob Evans

Dr. James “J.D.” Armstrong is a man of many hats in the local community, as well as the scientific community, where he has taken on the roles of educator, outreach coordinator and mentor.

When he isn’t searching the night skies for new scientific discoveries, he is working for outreach programs like Kihei Elementary’s “Star Party.” Dr. Armstrong also finds time to teach at UH Maui College, where he imparts his knowledge of astronomy and the sciences on his students and shares his passion with inquiring minds.

“It’s neat to see students get that ‘uh-huh’ moment… or further than they have before [in learning],” he said.

Dr. Armstrong’s work at the Institute for Astronomy Maui (IfA) in Pukalani includes general projects, as well as helping students with their science projects. He has personally taken the lead on the vacuum coating chamber, where he experiments with new coatings on mirrors for telescope use. At the IfA, researchers personally take on projects, he said, “With science projects, someone has to take ownership. Someone has to take ownership to drive it [forward].”

On the weekends, the IfA’s halls are empty; however, you’re likely to find Dr. Armstrong in his office Skyping with collaborating scientists on a current project.

“The IfA has lots of collaborators worldwide,” he explained. At the same time, several Maui High School students utilize his office for their own projects on the weekends. Working into the evening on various projects on a Sunday is not odd for Dr. Armstrong, and vacations are a rarely used commodity.

While growing up in Salt Lake City, Utah, his passion and intensity for science was obvious from a very young age, Dr. Armstrong said his fascination with science was generally a personal one. When he was in the second grade, a teacher asked what he wanted to be; his response was an engineer, which to his young self was the same thing as a physicist. “Physics has kinda always been where it’s been for me,” he explained.

This youthful passion was fueled by the ownership of a Tasco telescope—it wasn’t very powerful, but the young Dr. Armstrong used it a lot with enjoyment. With the exception of his uncle Bob, a geologist, there were very few scientists in his family. And while his hometown of Salt Lake City was not a big influence on his decision to study science, Dr. Armstrong was motivated nonetheless. “I never really thought about it; not with respect to where I lived,” he said. “But there were no scientists around—it was a professional white collar [neighborhood].”

Though Dr. Armstrong’s Ph.D. is in an astronomy-based subject, he has worked extensively in nuclear physics. He eventually got into solar physics, where he met Jeff Kuhn at Michigan State University.

At the time, Kuhn was teaching a course in General Relativity and Dr. Armstrong decided to take the class “just for fun.” When Kuhn ended up in Hawai‘i because of work, Dr. Armstrong followed and obtained his Ph.D. at University of Hawai‘i shortly thereafter.

A year and a half later, Dr. Armstrong and his group—with whom he’d working on a project for the University of New Mexico—were hired at the IfA.

Today, he lives without Internet at home and no pets—though he prefers cats or larger dogs. “Small dogs are like cats that can’t climb,” said Dr. Armstrong. Besides the gifts from schools and students that fill his office, there are pots from the plants he has attempted to raise. His lack of a “green thumb” doesn’t deter him from his plant collecting and he is proud of the successful plants that have survived. With the very little free time, he said he enjoys his favorite genre of science fiction shows: “Dr. Who,” “Firefly,” “Star Trek,” in addition to cult movies, mainstream shows like “Breaking Bad,” “Walking Dead,” “Gotham” and occasionally a B movie or two.

Dr. Armstrong may not be as famous as Bill Nye or Neil deGrasse Tyson, but on Maui he is an ambassador of science, mentor among aspiring scientists, teacher and tireless observer of the limitless night sky.