Dennis W. DukeView profile
Professor
Dennis W. Duke is a Professor of Physics at Florida State University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Physics within the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Computational Science. He has been a faculty member at FSU since 1979, progressing from Visiting Assistant Professor to his current position as full Professor since 1992. Duke has also held significant leadership roles including Director of the Supercomputer Computations Research Institute (1993-1998) and Director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center (1996-1997). Duke's research spans multiple disciplines with primary focuses on the history of ancient astronomy, computational physics, and high-performance computing. His work in ancient astronomy includes detailed studies of Greek, Babylonian, and Indian astronomical traditions, with particular emphasis on planetary models, trigonometry development, and historical measurement techniques. In computational science, he has made contributions to nonlinear dynamics, chaos theory, and statistical process control. Duke is particularly known for creating educational computer animations of ancient planetary models that have become valuable teaching tools. Analysis of Duke's 15 most recent publications reveals a consistent focus on historical astronomy, with approximately 75% of his work dedicated to analyzing ancient astronomical systems from Greek, Babylonian, and Indian traditions. The remaining publications address statistical methods and computational techniques. His historical research often combines mathematical analysis with historical scholarship to reconstruct and understand ancient astronomical practices. COFRS Award, The Florida State University (1985) COFRS Award, The Florida State University (1986) Developing Scholar Award, The Florida State University (1986) President's Continuing Education Award, The Florida State University (1992) Duke has been extensively involved in professional service, serving on numerous national committees related to supercomputing and organizing major conferences including multiple Supercomputing 'XY events from 1988 through 2006. His teaching extends beyond traditional academic boundaries through public outreach initiatives such as chairing the Board of Directors for Tallahassee Free-Net, Inc. and serving on the Leon County Schools Information Services Advisory Board. He has supervised numerous graduate students in computational physics and the history of science, though specific student names are not documented in the provided materials. Duke maintains an active research laboratory focused on computational ancient astronomy, where he develops mathematical models and computer animations to visualize historical astronomical concepts. His team has created an extensive collection of interactive animations demonstrating planetary models from Ptolemy through Copernicus, which are widely used in educational settings. Current projects include further analysis of ancient star catalogs and the development of more sophisticated visualization tools for historical astronomical concepts.
