Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association Welcomes Dr. Jackie Milingo, MMA's Director of Astronomy, as Featured October Science Speaker Series

October 2, 2025

NANTUCKET, MA— —The Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) announces that it will host its new

Director of Astronomy, Jackie Mlingo, PhD., as a featured presenter for its October Science Speaker 

Series. The presentation will take place on Wednesday, October 15 at 7pm in person at the MMA 

Research Center, 2 Vestal Street, and via Zoom. The event is FREE to all. 

Have you ever noticed the dark spots that sometimes appear on the Sun’s surface? These “sunspots” are 

just one example of star spots—mysterious patches that appear on stars across the galaxy. Far from 

being simple blemishes, star spots reveal the powerful magnetic forces at work inside stars, forces that 

also drive solar storms and shape the space weather that can impact entire planetary systems.

In this talk, Dr. Milingo will share her research on star spots and how she uses them as a window into 

teaching undergraduates the process of scientific discovery. She will also explore how science can reach 

far beyond the classroom—bringing STEM into everyday spaces and sparking curiosity across 

communities, from kindergartners to lifelong learners.

Dr. Jackie Milingo is an observational astronomer who earned B.S. degrees in Physics and Astronomy from 

the University of Kansas, and a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Oklahoma. Her research is 

currently focused on understanding magnetic activity cycles in sun-like stars through long-term studies of 

starpots. Dr. Milingo joins the MMA after a year-long AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship at 

the U.S. National Science Foundation, where she was a Fellow in the Office of Legislative and Public 

Affairs, as well as the Astronomy Division in the Math and Physical Sciences Directorate. Before her 

fellowship, she was a professor in the Physics Department at Gettysburg College for over twenty years 

where her work included mentoring undergraduate research students.

Dr. Milingo joined the staff of the MMA in early September after a year-long, worldwide search for a new 

astronomer. She becomes the eighth MMA Astronomer and Director of the Astronomy Department of 

the MMA since Margaret Harwood, the MMA’s first astronomer, served from 1916 to 1957. Dr. Milingo 

has spent her career committed to generating transformative experiential learning opportunities, 

contributing to public education and outreach, removing barriers for students, and changing the 

conversation and learning spaces in astronomy, physics, and STEM in general.

This event will be held both in person and via Zoom. Pre-registration is required to attend either option. 

To register for the free, in-person event, use the registration link below:

https://112458a.blackbaudhosting.com/112458a/October-Science-Speaker-Series--Dr-Jackie-Milingo

To register for the free, Zoom option, use the registration link below: 

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_5q4kXF2rRHi8iWbFPkLN5w

The Science Speaker Series is generously sponsored by the Maria Mitchell Association’s lead sponsor, 

Bank of America


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

October 2, 2025

Contact: Jonelle Gurley

jgurley@mariamitchell.org

Recent Posts

Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • August 17, 2026
August 19 {1857}. There are four great men whose haunts I mean to seek, and on whose footsteps I mean to stand: Newton, Shakespeare, Milton, and Johnson. To-day I told the driver to take me to St. Martin’s, where the guide-book says that Newton lived. He put me down at the Newton Hotel, but I looked in vain to its top to see anything like an observatory. I went into a wine-shop near, and asked a girl, who was pouring out a dram, in which house Newton lived. She pointed, not to the hotel, but to the house next to a church, and said, “that’s it – don’t you see a place on the top? That’s where he used to study nights.” It is a little, oblong-shaped observatory, built apparently of wood, and blackened by age . . . .” Blackened no doubt by the wood ash and soot found in the air throughout over-crowded nineteenth century London. We always think about London being very foggy in the nineteenth century but frankly a lot of it was wood and coal ash as the nineteenth century grew older, particularly as factories developed and belched all of that into the air – think Sherlock Holmes in the 1880s. But Maria Mitchell, while starting in Europe as a young woman’s chaperone, also knew that this tour of Europe was a great learning experience – the equivalent of a college education she could not have. Doors were thrown open to her around Europe – in particular at all of the observatories that dotted the continent. She was not just well-known – she was famous. JNLF

The Ice Man Cometh

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • August 10, 2026
This is a blog of the past. I often think of this “story” when it’s hot and humid out. So here it is again. The past few weeks have been very un-Nantucket as far as the heat and the extreme humidity. When I was a child and even a teenager, I remember that we always wore long pants and even sweaters in the summer evenings on island. This does not seem to be the norm any longer unfortunately. The heat also leads me to think about staying cool and what generations before us did to preserve food. Long before modern refrigeration, ice was used for preserving foods. Although the use of ice brought an end to salting and drying fish for local markets, with railroad development and western expansion in the 1850s, salt fish was still being shipped to inland domestic markets as well as abroad. As the fishing industry grew on Nantucket and elsewhere, however, so did the need for ice to keep the catch fresh for market. On Nantucket, when a hard freeze produced ice of the necessary thickness, blocks were cut from Maxcey’s and Washing Ponds and the North Head of Hummock Pond and stored in nearby icehouses. This was a fairly long and tricky process that took skill to make sure the ice was the right thickness and that one did not fall through the ice. Mainland icehouses typically used sawdust for insulation, but Nantucket ice was insulated with beach grass, seaweed, and eelgrass—sawdust not being readily available here. The iceman would drive his cart around the streets with usually a gaggle of children trailing behind – or hitching a secretive ride on the back of the cart – hoping for a piece of ice to suck on and cool off with – back when something that simple was a pure delicacy. When electricity was introduced on Nantucket in 1889, cutting pond ice was no longer necessary. Captain John “Jack” Killen built the first ice-making plant, on Straight Wharf, opening it on May 5, 1902. Several other plants, including that of the Island Service Company, followed—all operating until the Great Depression. Nantucket’s early ice-making plants were established primarily for packing fish and shellfish, which were shipped in barrels or fish boxes layered with ice. Fishermen both on and off-island would stock up on ice before going out on long trips, and it is said that island ice was of a much higher quality than that from plants off-island—perhaps because of the purity of Nantucket’s water. Some people still cut ice. My parents had an elderly friend, now gone, and his family owned – and I assume still owns – a camp of cottages from the 19 th century up in New Hampshire. In the winter, the entire family shows up to harvest ice and store it in the icehouse. The ice is then used in each of the cottages during the summer since they have no electricity or plumbing. It is an art that is almost gone but happily there are still a few who have passed down the knowledge and skill for harvesting ice. I recently took a look at his obituary and was blown away – I remember him for ice harvesting – but wow what a life! One of service and seeking justice. JNLF

Keep Calm and Bird On: August 2026

August 3, 2026
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