Pierre Sokolsky is an experimental particle astrophysicist. He is distinguished professor of physics and astronomy emeritus at the University of Utah, where he was also dean of the College of Science. Sokolsky is a fellow of the American Physical Society, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow, and a recipient of the American Physical Society's Panofsky Prize in High Energy Physics.
When on leave at the University of Adelaide, Pierre Sokolsky, a pioneer in observing cosmic rays by the streak of fluorescence they leave in the atmosphere, became fascinated with sunspots. In The Clock in the Sun, he takes us on two grand tours covering the history of astronomy and the physics of the sun with sunspots as a central theme. The result is a text suitable for a “physics for poets” course, but for me a weekend of fascinating reading. -- Francis Halzen, Vilas Research Professor and Gregory Breit Professor, University of Wisconsin–Madison The Clock in the Sun rekindles in me a spark of what my ancestors must have felt when they worshipped the Sun. Sokolsky methodically reconstructs the mystery and history of sunspots and reignites curiosity for our phenomenal solar time-keeper. -- Jamie Zvirzdin, author of <i>Subatomic Writing: Six Fundamental Lessons to Make Language Matter</i>