Inside Higher Ed has profiled Alan Lightman, describing the astrophysicist, professor, novelist and philanthropist as “the rare professor who has published on relativistic plasmas and also has a book deal with Pantheon.”

Lightman is also the founder of the Harpswell Foundation, a nonprofit that helps talented young women in Cambodia obtain university degrees in Cambodia and develop their leadership potential.

The Harpswell Foundation sends a few of its students to study at colleges in the United States every year, including at Bowdoin College.

“Five Harpswell students are currently on fellowships in the U.S., including Rada Chhorn, who studied psychology at the Royal University of Phnom Penh and is taking courses on gender and sexuality studies at Bowdoin,” the magazine writes. “She hopes when she returns to Cambodia to work in the Ministry of Women’s Affairs or a nongovernmental women’s rights organization.”

Lightman received an honorary degree from Bowdoin in 2005.