Who is “The Mad Scientist” of the Astronomy Department?

Dr. Tibor Torma of Hungary is one of the two professors
teaching entry level astronomy classes here at the university.
With approximately 250 students per semester, Dr. Torma’s
energy and unusual teaching demeanor in the classroom has
become known by many and led to him being nicknamed “The Mad Scientist.”

“He’s a good teacher but he definitely looks and talks like a mad scientist,” says Louisa Mashburn, a sophomore and former student in Torma’s class. “With his accent, grey hair, mannerisms and especially how excited he gets over the material he teaches, it’s not hard to see why he got the nickname.”

“I’m not a mad scientist. They just don’t know me. I’m very much on the ground with both feet,” says Torma with eyes wide open and a large smile across his face.

“My first experience with astronomy was when I was 4 years old in Hungary. Vega was always directly above me during the summer,” says Torma. “My fascination with astronomy and physics just grew from there. At 10, I was showing others objects through the telescope. I’ve been teaching this stuff my whole life.”

Torma pursued his fascination and became a physicist in a research lab in Hungary. Though he loved the work, he realized the conditions were too strenuous. Torma and his colleagues made roughly $200 a month leading many to find other sources of income.

“At that time, Hungary had gone to the dogs. Most of my fellow researchers did a lot of illegal things on the side to make extra money,” said Torma. “I ended up exposing many of them and getting them arrested. It ended up being too difficult to make an honest living there so I came here.”

Torma came to the United States when he was over 40 and described searching for a faculty job in theoretical physics extremely difficult. He decided to make the transition from research physicist to astronomy professor. Torma notes many similarities between researching and teaching. To Torma, the most important similarity is keeping an engaging mentality.

“There’s a lot of fascination with astronomy all over. If you find the proper language with people you can engage them,” said Torma. “I feel about 80 percent of students have questions. They are interested. They see things and want to know. Even out of doubting whether this stuff is useful at all, immediately the student is reached.”