Dr. Linda French is Professor of Physics and past Chair of the Physics Department at Illinois Wesleyan University, where she has been a professor since 2002. She received her A.B. in astronomy from Indiana University and a Ph. D. in planetary astronomy from Cornell University. Her scientific research, funded by the National Science Foundation, concerns the study of the shapes and surfaces of asteroids and comets. She is a frequent guest observer at Lowell Observatory in Arizona and at Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory in Chile, and is often accompanied by students on these research trips.