Mark Littmann Named Professor Emeritus, Reflects On 33-year Career at UT
College of Communication and Information faculty and staff applaud Professor Mark Littmann (middle) during the 2023 Convocation after it was announced he plans to retire after 33 years at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
One evening while clearing out his office on the second floor of the College of Communication and Information Building, Professor Mark Littmann stumbled across a nearly forgotten note from a grateful student on his desk.
Littmann enjoys hanging onto messages like this one. He stores them in what he playfully calls his “happiness file.” He has collected past evaluation forms, notes, cards, and more from his students over the years.
“It’s nice to take out and read if you’re not feeling so good some days,” Littmann said. “I like to look through them from time to time and it really raises my spirits.”
After more than thirty years at UT, Littmann decided it was time to retire from teaching during the 2023-24 academic year. In recognition of his commitment and dedication to the university and its students, the Office of the Provost honored his legacy by naming him professor emeritus.
“It’s very nice to be named professor emeritus,” Littmann said. “I hope to be worthy of it. It’s also very sad too. I liked being a professor and had never looked forward to retiring. I wish it could have been longer still, but I am grateful that it’s been this long.”
For thirty-three years, Littmann has served as the Julia G. and Alfred G. Hill Chair of Excellence in Science, Technology, and Medical Writing for the School of Journalism and Media, teaching writing about science so the public can understand and enjoy it.
He came to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1991 at the recommendation of his friend and former journalism and media professor, George Everett. The pair had worked together before in Salt Lake City at a local television station where Littmann was a weatherman while also teaching and acting as planetarium director for the Hansen Planetarium.
Littmann said he feels so fortunate to have had the opportunity to teach at UT, adding what made him truly fall for this place was the genuine passion he observed in his colleagues for instructing students. He said that is not always present at other universities, but working at UT always left him in awe at how much the teachers cared for their students and aspired to do the same.
Littmann’s service to UT was recognized in different ways throughout the years, including being selected as the second recipient of CCI Board of Visitors Professorship—a three-year designation that recognizes and rewards outstanding faculty members whose research, creative activity, teaching, and academic and professional service have uniquely contributed to the mission of their school, the college, and the university.
In 2022, Littmann was also named a Chancellor’s Professor, a designation that honors extraordinary scholarly attainment in an individual discipline or field and a record of excellence in teaching and service to the university.
“Dr. Littmann is one of the kindest, most respectful scholars I have ever worked with,” Interim School of Journalism and Media Director Courtney Childers said. “The kind of lifelong commitment and passion Dr. Mark Littmann has demonstrated to his students, research, field, and fellow faculty embodies the spirit of what it means to be a Volunteer. He has positively impacted generations of Vols who have graduated from CCI, and his designation as a professor emeritus is a fitting way to continue honoring Dr. Littmann’s many achievements.”
Love of the stars
As a young boy, Littmann enjoyed visiting planetariums with his family. Back then he never imagined his professional career would involve teaching and studying astronomy.
Littmann earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and literature from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He would go on to earn a master’s degree in creative writing from Hollins College and a doctorate in English from Northwestern University as he searched for a future career.
Then, in 1963, while working on his doctoral degree, he learned about a part-time summer job at a science museum and planetarium in St. Louis—now the St. Louis Science Center. A St. Louis native, Littmann thought it was a great opportunity to earn a little money and catch some planetarium shows while he returned home for the summer.
Littmann pictured himself sweeping floors, so he was surprised when he was told to apply for the astronomer position.
Littmann thought he was underqualified for the position but decided to complete the application anyways. In preparation, he pored over books in the astronomy library at Northwestern. He also traveled to the Adler Planetarium in Chicago a few times, observing shows and taking notes.
He got the position and worked part-time that summer as an astronomer. He enjoyed it so much he came back the following summer to do it again.
Littmann said he worked hard to put on good shows, adding he has always found astronomy exciting and wanted to transfer that feeling to attendees. His shows must have caught the attention of others because in the spring of 1965, he received a letter from Salt Lake City recruiting him to be the first director of the planetarium they were building.
“I thought this was preposterous,” Littmann said. “My experience in planetariums was two summers, part-time, giving planetarium shows. That’s it. So, I thought, it’s nice to be invited. I don’t have a chance for the job. But, let me repeat the process.”
He once again began researching and visiting other planetariums in preparation. While he didn’t expect to get the job, he felt if they were going to fly him back and forth to interview for this position, he could at least come up with ideas for them.
Apparently, they liked some of his ideas because they hired him as the first director of the Hansen Planetarium in Salt Lake City in 1965—a position he held for 18 years.
As director, Littmann wrote and produced 35 planetarium shows. They were such a hit that he made arrangements for other planetariums around the country and the world to present them in their communities—at no cost—with the aid of federal and corporate grants.
In addition to running the planetarium, he also taught college astronomy at the University of Utah and Westminster College while in Salt Lake City.
He would eventually leave Hansen Planetarium, finish a book about Halley’s Comet and then take an opportunity to write about science at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. He left the Institute to write more books and teach astronomy at Loyola College in Maryland before moving to UT in January 1991.
Littmann’s most recent books are Totality: The Great North American Eclipse of 2024 and Eclipse 2024, for students ages eight to fourteen.
Eclipses are one of Littmann’s favorite topics in astronomy. In his lifetime, he has seen a total of seven total eclipses—including the most recent in April 2024—and numerous partial eclipses.
He has also written books about Halley’s Comet; the discovery of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto; and meteor storms that produce 100,000 streaks in the sky per hour. His writing has earned him various awards including the Science Writing Award of the American Institute of Physics, the Elliott Montroll Special Award of the New York Academy of Sciences, and selection twice by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific as Astronomy Books of the Year.
He hopes to continue writing about the stars. One project he hopes to complete is a new edition of The Heavens on Fire in time for the 2031 return of the Leonid meteor storms.
In addition to books, Littmann also enjoys writing plays on a variety of topics. He has completed two full-length astronomy plays, one on Caroline Herschel (the first woman to become a professional astronomer), and the other on how young scientist Edmond Halley made middle-aged, irascible, almost unpublished Isaac Newton famous.
Littmann said he may no longer be in a classroom at UT daily but plans to continue writing and teaching when he can. He said those are his favorite activities and he is grateful to the university for allowing him to do it in service to them for as long as he did.
“Oh golly, what a lovely opportunity it was,” Littmann said about his time at UT. “The students were a joy. My colleagues were a joy. I’m just lucky to have been around.”
Mark Littmann Named Professor Emeritus, Reflects On 33-year Career at UT written by Hillary Tune and originally published on the College of Communication & Information site.