Blame Canada

Almost as famous for the epic proportions of his beard as for his pedagogy, the chair of the Astronomy department and Frontiers of Science mastermind Professor David Helfand will be relocating to Canada. It was reported Monday in a local newspaper in a remarkably hand-wavey way that “Helfand is now on a long term leave of absence from Columbia, with zero responsibilities for the foreseeable future.” He’s given up the Big Apple for the town of Squamish, just north of Vancouver, home of the newly-founded Quest University. Helfand was one of the University’s Founding Tutors and has been acting as interim president since 2008.

Helfand will now be acting as the full-time head of Quest, which graduated its first class this April. According to The Chief, Squamish’s news website, Helfand feels more at home there then he ever did during his 33 years at Columbia. “I have been lecturing at Columbia for a third of a century,” said Helfand. “But I feel I only began truly teaching when I came to Quest.”

We’ll especially miss his killer moves.

Homecoming via Quest