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Professor Darby Dyar appointed deputy principal investigator of VERITAS First mission to Venus in three decades BY LIZ LEWIS ’22 MANAGING EDITOR OF CONTENT
Professor M. Darby Dyar never intended to be a planetary geologist — or a scientist at all, for that matter. As an undergraduate at Wellesley College, she majored in art history and geology, determined to build a career as a journalist. However, encouraged by the few female mentors in STEM she encountered, she set herself on a path that would grow into a renowned career in planetary science. Now, as a decorated researcher and the chair of Mount Holyoke’s astronomy department, Dyar adds another accolade to her name: deputy principal investigator for Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography & Spectroscopy, or VERITAS
for short, one of two missions to Venus recently approved for NASA’s Discovery Program. “I’ve spent hundreds of hours on Venus proposals,” Dyar said. “To say that I’m overjoyed with this is an understatement.” VERITAS and its sister program, Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging, Plus, also known as DAVINCI+, will be the first missions to Venus in over 30 years. Both aim to advance scientific knowledge about the under-explored planet’s atmosphere and surface. VERITAS will operate with a focus on mapping Venus’ surface and geological history, while DAVINCI+ will send instruments into the planet’s atmosphere to investigate its chemical makeup. As deputy principal investigator, Dyar said
Photo courtesy of TEDxShelburneFalls Darby Dyar, who was chosen to help lead mission to Venus, presents at TEDxShelburneFalls in late 2012.
she will act as the “number two scientist” on the mission. “If anything should happen to the lead scientist, I have to step into her shoes,” she said. “The mission has two different instruments. One of them does … topography of the surface and uses a radar, and the other instrument is a spectrometer. I do spectroscopy, so that’s sort of my baby.” Dyar has been developing the spectrometer with scientists in Berlin for about five years, and will continue to do so until its launch in 2027. The twin missions’ approval is a
massive victory for Dyar, her peers and the scientific community at large. “The Venus community has waited decades for this moment, and to have NASA give us two missions in one, both complementary, is out of this world,” Dyar told NPR in a recent article and radio segment. Today, Venus is anything but habitable, with an atmosphere thick with carbon dioxide and surface temperatures reaching 864 degrees Fahrenheit. Dyar CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
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Former Smith College lecturer accused of sexual abuse BY DECLAN LANGTON ’22 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Content Warning: This article discusses both emotional and sexual abuse. Robert Ellis Hosmer Jr., an emeritus Smith College faculty member, was among the clergy members and lay employees named by the Diocese of Springfield, Mass. for sexually abusing a minor. Hosmer was named along with 60 others in a list first published on May 24. At Smith, Hosmer was a lecturer in the English Language & Literature department for 27 years. He retired in 2016 but has since occasionally taught courses. He taught most recently in spring 2020. In a letter written to the Smith com-
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ISOC Demands
munity, Smith College President Kathleen McCarthy and Provost and Dean of Faculty Michael Thurston wrote that “no allegations from anyone within the Smith community have been brought against this lecturer.” After the College was notified that a list of the accused would contain Hosmer’s name, a complete review was done on his file. In it was a record from 2001 “from an individual to the College, alleging that this lecturer abused him in the 1970s when he was a student at the high school where this lecturer taught before Smith,” McCarthy and Thurston wrote. This individual was Fran O’Connell of Holyoke Catholic High school. According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, O’Connell wrote in this letter that Hosmer had “seduced me into an intimate emotional
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and physical relationship that continued into my adult life.” According to McCarthy and Thurston, when this letter was first received in 2001, the College’s legal team advised no action. “Twenty years later, this advice seems anachronistic and irresponsible,” McCarthy and Thurston wrote. In their address to the Smith community, McCarthy and Thurston said, “Any allegation of sexual misconduct should have been, as it is now, fully and impartially investigated.” Reports of sexual misconduct at Smith College will be handled by Amy Hunger, the current director of equal opportunity and compliance/Title IX coordinator. In a letter addressed to the Springfield Catholic community, Rev. William D. Byrne, the bishop of Springfield,
Bo Burnham’s new special
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wrote that since his arrival into the Diocese of Springfield, he has “been committed to transparency and communication particularly with regard to the scandal of the sexual abuse of minors by clergy, religious and lay church staff. It is an open wound that has remained for far too long.” In the rest of his letter, Byrne describes meeting with survivors and their family members over the past few months to receive feedback on the ways in which the Diocese has, in the past, responded to reports of abuse. “As your bishop, please accept my sincere apology and my commitment towards working to regain your trust. I am CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
Senior capstone exhibit
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