Astronomy Department

The Five College Astronomy Department is a collaborative program of the astronomers at Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, which are all located in the Connecticut River valley of Western Massachusetts. By linking teaching and research programs, we offer a rich and diverse environment for studying and doing astronomy.

Astronomy majors typically take most of their required courses at their home campuses, but they have a wide variety of elective choices to take at the nearby campuses. There is a free bus service connecting all five campuses.

The Five College Astronomy Department (FCAD), founded in 1960 on a shared commitment to excellence in teaching and in research, is a collaborative arrangement between the Astronomy Departments of Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Over the years we have collectively implemented programs that fostered a shared research community in addition to a shared educational program. The first major collective research initiative was the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory (FCRAO), begun in 1970 with a grant from the National Science Foundation and supplemented with funds from the Colleges and the Research Corporation. The original meter-wave telescope was replaced by the world’s largest mm-wave telescope and FCRAO continued as a world-class research facility for more than 3 decades. Other major FCAD initiatives included cooperative programs with the Astronomy Department at the University of Wyoming and with the Astronomy Department of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). The latter was the basis for founding the Large Millimeter Telescope, the world´s largest single-dish steerable millimetre-wavelength telescope, sited at the summit of Volcán Sierra Negra in Mexico. Currently our major shared initiative in education and research is centered on the 1.8-meter Perkins telescope at Anderson Mesa Station, Arizona, a dark sky site roughly 14 miles south of Flagstaff owned by Boston University.

Core Courses in the Shared Undergraduate Astronomy Curriculum

This fund is named in honor of Mary Dailey, Smith College, class of 1922. It provides travel support for Undergraduates; travel grants for graduate students; and an MDI cash award for distinguished senior thesis in astronomy.

The Five College Astronomy Department (FCAD) is a partnership that combines the talent and resources of a prestigious R1 state university astronomy department and small departments from four high-caliber liberal arts colleges. A centerpiece of the collaboration is our commitment to excellent undergraduate educational opportunities, including a shared curriculum, opportunities for student research with faculty from all schools, and an Educational/Research Initiative that supports a postdoctoral Education/Research Fellow and provides for observing time and student travel to a world-class observatory for an observing capstone course.

We are searching for a Fellow during Fall 2026 to start in Fall 2027 for a three year position. This Fellow will be hosted by Mount Holyoke College, joining Assistant Professor Stacy Kim in their Department of Physics and Astronomy. The Fellow will be a member of the FCAD and will be mentored by Dr. Kim and additional FCAD faculty. The job advertisement will be found on the AAS job register (posted in late September 2026). 

EDUCATION: The Fellow is expected to teach one course to astronomy majors each semester and may choose to supervise one or more students in research projects during the summer or academic year. Classes will be taught at Mount Holyoke College and are open to qualified students from all FCAD schools. A dedicated graduate FCAD TA is available to support the fellow in teaching these courses. 

• Fall Class:  AST 337: Observational Techniques.  An introduction to the techniques of observational astronomy, with emphasis on optical and infrared observations. Students will use the Python computing language to reduce real astronomical data. Topics covered include: astronomical software; observation planning; coordinate and time systems; telescope design and optics; instrumentation and techniques for imaging and photometry; astronomical detectors; digital image processing tools and techniques; and statistical techniques for making astronomical measurements. This course is a prerequisite for the AST 341 Observational Techniques II course. A previous syllabus of AST 337 is here.
   
• Spring Class: AST 341 Observational Techniques II: This course is well-established, but will be modified by the Fellow to cover a scientific topic aligned with the Fellow's own research, such as galaxy properties, molecular clouds, HII regions, circumstellar disks, exoplanets, etc. The course begins with an observing run on a professional observing facility in January before the spring term starts to investigate a science topic selected in advance by the Fellow.  Currently we have 6 nights on the Perkins Telescope Observatory to support this course through a partnership with Boston University. During the semester, students will work in small teams, writing research proposals to work on subsets of the class data, and reducing and analyzing it during weekly seminars through the semester. Scientific results will be presented in a poster session to the full Five College Astronomy Department at the end of the semester and may result in co-authorship on a published paper. A previous syllabus of AST 341 is here.

RESEARCH: The Fellow is expected to have a vibrant research program that has synergy with other research in FCAD. The Fellow will have two offices, one in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the host institution, Mount Holyoke College, and the other in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. As a member of FCAD, the fellow will have access to numerous weekly events (e.g. weekly colloquia, journal club, etc.) and institutional facilities such as the Large Millimeter Telescope in Mexico. 

Further details on the position and how to apply are found in the job advertisement on the AAS job register (posted in late Sept 2026). 

Program Chair: 

Alexandra Pope, Professor of Astronomy, UMass Amherst

Five College Staff Liaison: 

Ray Rennard, Director of Academic Programs