By: Lauren A. Grace

Homecoming has all the joys of high school. Football, friends, pep rallies and the dance, but also learning the history of all the wonders that have gone through the hallways before our time. Homecoming, the word is redundant, people come back to “home” to hopefully remember charming memories of their past. Students now, may think of the halls as the scene for aggressive disputes, but the Hall of Fame reminds all that success can come from surprising places, such as OP.

Oct. 8 2010, while most classmates went to their first and second class, other students were invited to meet the class of 1987 Dr. John Baker. Baker has successfully gone on to the career as an astrophysicist. He has received an accolade for Hall of Fame in 2010. Which is so perfect for the theme at homecoming, “Fly Me to the Moon”.

“There was no hall of fame when I was here,” said Baker. “But I thought I wanted to be a scientist.”

In 2008, he won the “John C. Lindsay Memorial award”, which is a very high honor, for his study in Goddard Space Center. He now takes on the challenge of L.I.S.A. [Laser Interferometer Space Antenna].

“L.I.S.A. is three space crafts shaped in a triangle. A Laser carefully watches [the] changes of the shape in the triangle; gravitational waves,” Baker said.

He talked to students that have taken challenge or AP physics, or Science Olympiad students.

He explained that he watches black holes orbit around each other until they collide and create a gravitational wave, and he predicts how far away the gravitational waves are. He also helps prove Newton and Einstein’s theories with modern technology. While explaining his fascination of what lies beyond the stars, he also told his tale.

“It is what we do in class, but they actually have rockets,” said science teacher John Dedrick.

He went to NMSU [Truman] College, and then went to Penn State. In high school his average GPA was 3.4, and he majored in Physics and Philosophy.

“There use to never be physics books, here in the library,” Baker said. “It’s fun to get to see a lot of students interested and people like me that are into general relativity,” Baker said.

It just goes to show that science class does have a reason, it can be a sophisticating career and one can specialize in it and even start now.

“Go for it and always do science and work hard. There are a lot of interesting things out there you got to reach out. You may not see it but it is there,” said Baker.