Hazen Talks About Her 47-Year Career in Astronomy

By Robert Doherty
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Martha Hazen, who lives at Linden Ponds, recently had Asteroid number 10,024 named after her by the Minor Planet Group at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics—the deciding body for naming asteroids—as a tribute to her 47-year career.

“Harvard has the largest, most complete coverage of both hemispheres and longest time base of glass plate sky photographs of anyplace in the world. It’s a very important research collection. I spent the last 33 years of my career caring for them as the Curator of Astronomical Photographs,” says Hazen. “I was eventually given the title of Lecturer in the Department of Astronomy.”

Hazen’s career began at Mt. Holyoke College. “No one told me I couldn’t take physics and math like they were telling every other woman at that time, so I did. Then I went to graduate school at the University of Michigan for my Ph.D.” adds Hazen. Hazen’s profession has brought her in contact with people all over the world. “I did my own research over a 17-year period at the U.S. National Observatory in Northern Chile. It was tremendous.”

In addition to having an asteroid named after her, Hazen has also been recognized by the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO). “This organization started in 1911 when the number of known variable stars got so large that astronomers couldn’t keep track of them, so someone realized that this would be a wonderful thing for an amateur with a telescope to do,” says Hazen. To keep track of how bright the various variable stars are, the AAVSO now has hundreds of members. “I was secretary for the AAVSO for a long time and when I retired, they gave me a Merit Award,” adds Hazen.