Maria Mitchell Association Announces Staff Change in Astronomy

September 26, 2024

NANTUCKET, MA –After nine years at the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) as its Director of Astronomy, Dr. Regina Jorgenson will be leaving the MMA for a tenure-track professorship in Astronomy at California State Polytechnic University Humboldt (Cal Poly Humboldt). The MMA is excited for Dr. Jorgenson to take this step in her career. Since 2016, she has received and supervised several National Science Foundation grants, led the esteemed National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) program in astronomy, and led Open Nights at Loines Observatory and other astronomy-related programs.

 

A former MMA NSF- REU intern, Dr. Jorgenson worked under Dr. Vladimir Strelnitski, former Director of the MMA Observatory who revitalized the MMA’s Astronomy Program, as an assistant. She will be an excellent addition to the Astronomy department at Cal Poly Humboldt and they are fortunate to have her expertise.      The MMA, its Executive Director Joanna Roche, and its Board of Directors are grateful for her good work and wish her well in her new endeavor.

 

The MMA is pleased to announce that it has hired Dr. Geoff Clayton as its Interim Director of Astronomy.  Dr. Clayton, a Nantucket visitor going back to his youth and a year-round island resident, recently retired from Louisiana State University as the chair of the Astronomy Department and the Ball Family Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy.  A longtime member of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), he is a past Vice President of the AAS and for several years worked as a summer Assistant Director of Astronomy at the MMA with Dr. Strelnitski.  Dr. Clayton continues to work on his research; his areas of interest include binary white-dwarf mergers, circumstellar and interstellar dust in the Local Group, and dust formation and evolution in core-collapse in supernovae.  Clayton will assist with the running of the MMA’s Astronomy Department and its public programs, including Open Nights at Loines Observatory.

 

The MMA has begun its search process for a new, full-time MMA Director of Astronomy. To find the right individual for this important position, the MMA will be creating a search committee made up of astronomers, former MMA NSF-REU interns, and board members. 


For Immediate Release

September 26, 2024

Contact: Joanna Roche

jroche@mariamitchell.org

Recent Posts

Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • September 21, 2026
Sept. 24, 1881. . . . Mr. I. {van Ingen} thinks that not a person on the Board of Trustees would approve of the clause in Mr. Vassar’s will which objected to women as occupants of chairs. Just months before, Maria Mitchell had written a letter describing the controversy surrounding the bequest of Matthew Vassar to the college he founded. The large sum was separated out within his will, including the establishment of department chairs. The bequest for this action, however, did not allow for women professors to have a chair. Quite shocking for a women’s college but then, there were early trustees in the College’s founding who believed that women professors should not exist at Vassar! Maria would be the first professor Vassar hired – male OR female. JNLF

Hoop Rolling

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • September 14, 2026
Do you know what these Mitchell House Junior Historians are doing? It is a good old-fashioned round of hoop rolling. And, they had a lot of fun learning how to use them down at the Coffin School one day. Hoop rolling or hoop trundling were popular from very early on and well into the twentieth century. By early on I mean Ancient Greece even. It’s on ancient pottery and was not limited to children! Native Americans, ancient Rome, 16 th century England – it’s been known by different names, taken various formats, played by various ages, and played through various ages. In the nineteenth century, both boys and girls did hoop rolling – and it was likely seen as a more “ladylike” active game that girls could play. I’m assuming that is likely the reason why several women’s colleges still have I tradition of rolling hoops. We use these sometimes in the summer during our weeklong Mitchell House children’s program – Junior Historians. Do not be too surprised if you see me out on the lawn on Vestal Street practicing on warm days this fall, winter, and spring! Got to get up to speed! JNLF

Keep Calm and Bird On: September 2026

September 1, 2026
“If you don’t look, you don’t see. You have to go and look.” -Edith Andrews
Show More