Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association Welcomes Richard Ward as Featured Guest for November Science Speaker Series

November 11, 2023

NANTUCKET, MA — The Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) announces that it will host Richard Ward as a featured presenter for its Science Speaker Series. His presentation “Don’t Click That Link!” will take place on Wednesday, November 29 at 7pm EST. It will be presented via Zoom. This event is free to all.


The Internet has brought amazing services to your living room and phone, from streaming music and movies, to online commerce and banking. At the same time, this brave new world has created an environment rich with bad actors, scams, attacks, breaches, data-spills, and more. There are a lot of threats out there, but being aware of which ones are real, which ones are myth, which ones are likely, and which are rare will help you navigate the Net more safely.


In this presentation, Richard Ward will discuss some of the common threats and work our way up to some very sophisticated attacks that have become part of the threat landscape. Richard Ward, B.S, Technical Fellow, leads the Enterprise and Security team for the Microsoft Windows and Devices Group. There, he oversees the engineering teams responsible for the security of the Windows platform, as well as the connection to the commercial customers and their requirements. Previously, he ran the Storage and Networking team for Windows; as well as the Windows Phone team, running the Developer Platform team; and the Windows Mobile Labs team, focused on incubation and prototyping of new technologies in the mobile space. Ward joined the Windows Mobile team after a long stay in Windows, where he headed the Core Architecture team. In that role, he focused on broad design issues such as state separation and management for both Windows components as well as applications. Ward also ran the security development team for Windows NT 3.5 and NT 4.0 and the core security group for Windows 2000. During this time, Ward wrote the first SSL and Kerberos implementations for Microsoft, and oversaw the evolution of the original NTLM authentication protocol. Ward joined Microsoft in 1989 as a security developer for the LAN Manager product line. Join Richard Ward for this Science Speaker Series Talk on Zoom. Pre-registration is required.


To register for this event, please follow the link below:

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_s0DY91xDQIquof-Cur7JfQ#/registration


This series is generously sponsored by our lead sponsor, Bank of America


The Maria Mitchell Association is a private non-profit organization. Founded in 1902, the MMA works to preserve the legacy of Nantucket native astronomer, naturalist, librarian, and educator, Maria Mitchell. The Maria Mitchell Association operates two observatories, a natural science museum, an aquarium, a research center, and preserves the historic birthplace of Maria Mitchell. A wide variety of science and history-related programming is offered throughout the year for people of all ages.


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For Immediate Release

November 11, 2023

Contact: Molly Mosscrop, Marketing Director

mmosscrop@mariamitchell.org

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By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • May 27, 2025
This is what our landscaper for MMA calls it. “The ancient vine.” He tells the people who work for him not to touch the “ancient vine.” I have probably made him – and all of them – terrified of it. I am even terrified of it to some degree. I refer to the grape vine behind the Mitchell House this is supposed to be Peleg Mitchell Junior’s grape vine – Maria Mitchell’s uncle who inhabited the house from about 1836 to his death in 1882. It has two trunks but one died several years ago. Because of that, each year I try to root shoots. It’s fairly easy to do – when you cut back the vine in late fall/early winter. I have had success but not success protecting the shoots I baby all winter from bunnies and other critters try as I might. I started doing this when the one trunk died – I was PANICKED! The landscaper stays away because I have told him if anyone is going to accidentally harm or worse yet, kill, this grape vine it would be me so I only have myself to blame. So each November/December – once ALL the leaves have fallen off – I climb my ladder and quietly, carefully, and fearfully cut back the stems typically to two buds. I have been somewhat successful in spurring grape production – and these grapes attract some amazing birds in the fall. It takes me some time – and I pretty much hyperventilate the entire time – and then, I stare at it all winter. Passing under it multiple times a day to reach my office. Hoping, and yes, praying, it will come out in the spring. It’s a late budder so just recently the buds started to show themselves – thank goodness! – and I was rewarded today (May 5, 2025) with this wonderful hot pink color on the edges of the leaves as they are uncurling. JNLF

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By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • May 19, 2025
May 27. {1857} There is this great difference between Niagara and other wonders of the world, that is you get no idea from descriptions or even from paintings. Of the Mammoth Cave you have a conception from what you are told, of the Natural Bridge you get really a truthful impression from a picture. But Cave and Bridge are in still life, Niagara is all activity and change. No picture gives you the varying form of the water of the change of color; no description conveys to your mind the ceaseless roar. So too the ocean must be unrepresentable to those who have not looked upon it. Maria Mitchell would tour the Mammoth Cave and the Natural Bridge during her trip to the southern United States as Prudence Swift’s chaperone – I have written of these travels and Prudence before. Niagara Falls is a place she likely saw on her way to visit her younger sister Phebe Mitchell Kendall, who once lived with her husband in Pennsylvania. I was a bit surprised that she feels the way she does about the Cave and Bridge being well-represented by images but I do kind of se her point. But Niagara, the ocean, any moving body of water – she is right. You don’t fully comprehend it until you hear it, touch and taste it, see its colors, and feel it splash, sprinkle, or mist across your face. Niagara certainly mists across your face – sort of like a breezy day at the beach and the salt mist that slowly builds across your face and coats the beach grass so that it shimmers in the sunlight. JNLF

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By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • May 12, 2025
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