Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association Welcomes Dr. Amy Hinson as Featured Guest for Science Speaker Series

Erin Holdgate • March 20, 2023

NANTUCKET, MA—The Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) announces that it will host Dr. Amy Hinson as a featured presenter for its Science Speaker Series this month. Her presentation, “Where is the Science in Forensic Science?,” will take place March 29 at 7pm on Zoom. This event is free to all.

 

In her presentation, Dr. Hinson will discuss the intersection of the understanding of scientific processes, facts, and how they help to solve crimes, as there is often much debate on where to find the actual science in forensic sciences. “For the most part, it seems as if most of what is done is literal matching of patterns; fingerprints, DNA, ballistics, soil, glass, hair, fibers, pollen…you get the idea,” Dr. Hinson said of the topic.

 

She will also share how she transformed a 12-student, semester-long class into a year-long course that was consistently over-enrolled after teaching this course at Nantucket High School for eight years.

 

Dr. Amy Hinson is a distinguished educator of the sciences at Nantucket High School, where she has fostered a passion and love for science through her course offerings, most notably so in the Forensic Science course. Dr. Hinson is a post-doctoral fellow of the Yale University postdoctoral program, where she focused on biochemistry and molecular biophysics with an emphatic research application in neuroscience.

 

Hinson has been a Nantucket resident since 2001 and continues to teach the island’s young and aspiring scientists in hopes that they, too, will find a path in science. She is the daughter of an educator and a former NASA engineer—her scientific and critical thinking skills are indeed molecular!

 

This series is generously presented by our lead sponsor, Bank of America. For additional details on this event, please visit https://www.mariamitchell.org/science-speaker-series.

 

The Maria Mitchell Association was founded in 1902 to preserve the legacy of Nantucket native astronomer, naturalist, librarian, and educator, Maria Mitchell. After she discovered a comet in 1847, Mitchell’s international fame led to many achievements and awards, including an appointment as the first professor of astronomy at Vassar College. Maria Mitchell believed in “learning by doing” and today that philosophy is reflected in the MMA’s mission statement, programs, research projects, and other activities. 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.

 

###

For Immediate Release

March 20, 2023

Contact: Erin Holdgate, Marketing Director

eholdgate@mariamitchell.org

Recent Posts

Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • July 7, 2025
July 31, 1883. I had two or three rich days! On Friday last I went to Holderness, N.H.. to the Asquam House; I had been asked by Mrs. T to join her party. There was at this house Mr. Whittier, Mr., and Mrs. Cartland, Professor and Mrs. Johnson, of Yale . . . The house seemed full of fine, cultivate people. We stayed two days and a half. And first of the scenery. The road up to the house is a steep hill, and at the foot of the hill it winds and turns around two lakes. The panorama is complete one hundred and eighty degrees. Beyond the lakes lie the mountains.  The Asquam House sat atop Shepard Hill and was built in 1881. A hotel, it has space for fifty guests, it was located near Squam Lake and became part of a summer enclave that developed there in the later part of the nineteenth century. Today, the area is a National Historic Landmark, but sadly, the hotel was demolished in 1948. Maria would have been familiar with these people seen here – and others I did not include – but particularly John Greenleaf Whittier who was something of a family friend. He was close to one of her younger brothers, William Forester. JNLF

Keep Calm and Bird On: July 2025

July 1, 2025
“If you don’t look, you don’t see. You have to go and look.” -Edith Andrews

The Birth of the Maria Mitchell Observatory: Celebrating Over 100 Years of Discovery

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • June 30, 2025
As we are now complete with the conservation of the historic Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory (MMO), I thought it would be good to post a series of blogs concerning it history and activities, as well as some of the amazing people who have made it what it is over the last 100 plus years. Therefore, over the next few weeks, the focus will be on the MMO. And it is now open for tours – Monday through Saturday 11-1PM. Founded in 1902, the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) had its beginnings in the Mitchell House where Maria Mitchell was born. Over the first few years, the preservation of the Mitchell House, family artifacts, and the collection and display of Nantucket’s native flora and fauna, as well as a small library, were the key components of the MMA. Special “Moon Evenings” were held on the lawn and people observed Nantucket’s night skies using several small telescopes, including William and Maria Mitchell’s two-and-three-quarter-inch Dollond telescope. The popular evenings led to the inevitable – a desire and need to expand based on the demands of the visitors to, and members of, the MMA. In 1906, Lydia Hinchman, a founder of the MMA and a family member, purchased the house and lot adjacent to the Mitchell House. The house – once the home of William Mitchell’s father and mother – was taken down. The MMA began a dialogue with the Harvard College Observatory and its director, Edward Pickering, Ph.D. The connection to Harvard was to become essential to the success of the beginning years of the Maria Mitchell Observatory and continued a legacy of friendship and work – Maria Mitchell and her father worked with the Bonds who once ran the observatory at Harvard and the families were close friends. Besides his assistance, Pickering asked a member of his staff, Annie Jump Cannon, to assist the MMA. This “provided an indispensable collaboration for Nantucket astronomy,” with Cannon spending two weeks on the island in 1906 and 1907 lecturing and teaching. While back at Harvard, she continued to teach the students on Nantucket by mail. Cannon would go on to be recognized as the leading woman astronomer of her generation and as the founder of the MMA’s Astronomy Department. JNLF
Show More