Georg Hoffstaetter de Torquat stands tall in the boat, one hand on the mast, his gaze fixed on a spot across the water. A warm September breeze has just changed direction on Cayuga Lake.
“One of the things I love best about sailing is that it feels like you’re in the grip of nature,” he says, “because the forces that act on you come directly from the wind. It’s amazing.”
He then turns his attention back to the handful of students on the small sailboat with him and on the several other boats clustered nearby. It’s time for another series of measurements for the day’s hands-on lesson.
Hoffstaetter de Torquat is a physics professor, and he can typically be found researching particle accelerator technology, whether for the Electron-Ion Collider project at Brookhaven National Laboratory or other applications like spectrometers and electron microscopes.
But for the fall 2024 semester, he is also teaching a new course, the Physics of Sailing—marrying his academic field with his lifelong love of the water.
