Students & Alumnae

Current Majors and Minors

ASTRO Club

The ASTRO Club is a student organization that meets for recreational observing, astrophotography, and other activities. The email contact for the ASTRO Club is a.s.t.r.o.club_wsco@wellesley.edu. You can also email the current club president Naunet Leonhardes-Barboza: nl102@wellesley.edu. Additionally, you can follow the club on Instagram @astro_wellesley.

Careers for Astronomy Majors

Approximately half of our majors go on to graduate school and work toward a Ph.D. in astronomy or planetary science. Graduates who completed their doctorates have gone on to work at national observatories, colleges, universities, NASA, and other scientific laboratories. Others have earned degrees in engineering or computer science and work in industry.  Some of our alums have pursued degrees in law or business.

Those who haven chosen not to pursue advanced degrees have applied their skills in other ways, such as working as research assistants, telescope operators, educators, technical writers, museum staffers, librarians, and more.  Their science backgrounds have prepared them to find success in many fields.       

More information:

• A New Universe to Explore: Careers in Astronomy Brochure from the American Astronomical Society aas.org.
• Astronomy-Powered Careers from the American Astronomical Society aas.org.

Fellowships and Awards

Annie Jump Cannon Fellowship

This fellowship is awarded annually to a promising young researcher and the funds are used to sponsor a research project. The award is named in honor of Annie Jump Cannon, an illustrious alumna of Wellesley College known for her work on the classification of stellar spectra.  The funds have been provided by a generous anonymous donor.  Past awardees are:

• Michaela Fendrock '14 (2013): Mass wasting and aeolian erosion on Mars: a survey and modeling study.
• Alejandra Escamilla '18 (2014): KELT: The Search for Extrasolar Planets.
• Carol Hundal '18 (2015): Morphometry of recent secondary impact craters on Mars.
• Leafia Sheraden-Cox '20 and Chloe Shi '20 (2016): KELT: The Search for Extrasolar Planets.
• Emma Chickles '21 (2018): The Crater modification sequence on Mars and the Moon.
• A. Granados '21 (2019): Commissioning Wellesley's 0.7m Telescope.
• Fiona Powers Ozyurt '22 (2020): TESS
• Hannah Stickler '22 (2020): TESS
• Laura Chin '23 (2021)
• Michelle Tu '24 (2022)
• Ceiligh Cacho-Negrete (2023)

Alumnae

For alumnae of the interdepartmental Astrophysics program, also see the list of Physics alumnae.