Members of the Houston Astronomical Society pose with Dr. Renée James, Sam Houston State University, before her talk Straddling the Line: Confessions of an Astronomer-Writer.

Trained as a stellar spectroscopist at the astronomy department of the University of Texas at Austin, Dr. James later switched gears from determining the chemical abundances of metal-poor stars in favor of exploring interesting connections in astronomy and the history of science. She has written extensively for both Astronomy and Sky and Telescope magazines ("What Has Astronomy Done For You Lately?"), and was awarded the Popular Science Writing Award by the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society. She recently authored "Seven Wonders of the Universe That You Probably Took for Granted" (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010), and is currently working on a book about the surprising life-changing results of seemingly impractical pure science research.