As a child, Lauren Albin was immersed in star lore. Her father worked at a planetarium as a planetary geologist, and she spent many days inside the dome gazing at the night sky. Albin got to know the staff well, too. She hung out with Judy, the technician, and observed the staff, absorbing how these different people came together to tell stories about the stars.
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| Lauren and her father. |
Her father also included Lauren in his hobbies and interests, from building telescopes in the garage to rock collecting and meteorite hunting. At the same time, Lauren’s mother taught language arts in the local school system, and she shared her love of reading and literature with her daughter. These two loves—story and stars—drew Albin into poetry writing. She pursued English literature and creative writing at Agnes Scott College.
“I just loved the complexity of poetry and talking about it, reading it. I was just eating, breathing, reading poetry the whole time,” Albin said of her experience. Once she graduated, she pursued an MFA in poetry from Arizona State University, which happened to be her father’s alma mater for his master's in planetary geology.
Albin became interested in Korean poetry, in particular, and decided to learn Korean to understand the poems in their original language. This led to translation classes in addition to poetry. “Korean poetry is interesting, too, because there are always stars or, you know, astronomy mentioned in it. So I enjoyed that. I like astronomical poetry,” Albin said.
The astronomical Korean poetry is what began to lead Albin back to her love for the stars. She returned to Agnes Scott College to teach creative writing, but also decided to get a master’s degree in space studies with an emphasis in astronomy remotely from American Public University. Her father was running the program and pitched the idea, asking for Albin’s feedback as she worked through the degree. Albin did so during the pandemic. The coursework focused on space flight and crewed missions to Mars, and Albin discovered an interest in women’s health in space.
“I realized there's been so few women astronauts that we don't fully know how microgravity affects the female body. And I also am a big proponent of sending a full woman crew to Mars.”
With her master’s degree, Albin could teach astronomy and a spot opened up at the Fernbank Science Center in Druid Hills, Georgia, where her father had actually worked when Albin was a child. Then she applied to be the planetarium director at Young Harris College in North Georgia and landed the job. Now Albin teaches astronomy classes and directs the planetarium and observatory. While she enjoys the position, Albin is the only person in the astronomy department.
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| Albin at work at the O. Wayne Rollins Planetarium |
“I feel like I’m the technician, I’m maintenance, I’m director and creative director. All of these things fall under my purview. I’ve been trying to build a big network outside of my job of people that would have support and help because I'm also in a really rural area.”
One of the ways Albin has connected is through ASTRO ACCEL Global Network of Networks, which focuses on connecting practitioners of astronomy education around the world. Albin has worked on a project through Astro Accel’s seed funding measuring joy, wonder, and awe in astronomy for over two years now. She created a survey and disseminated it, and the project continues to grow.
Another project involves developing astronomy education curriculum and exploring partnerships with other observatories. “It's been really cool to see these partnerships all of a sudden sort of crop up that hook my institution with other institutions around not just the US but around the globe. So that's been really life changing for me. And through Astro Accel, I also met a lot of cool people,” Albin said.
“It just really expanded my world and gave me a support system beyond what I have at home. I feel like that's been the way that I've been surviving, just meeting people and finding networks outside of my own, and that's made me more confident in talking to other people. I think I'm kind of a shy person. That's why I like the planetarium. I'm like a voice in the dark, like no one's looking at me, but it's sort of made it more comfortable to make connections for me.” Albin has also attended a couple of AAS conferences and found connecting with other planetarium directors there a valuable experience.
When Albin became more interested in a career in astronomy, she didn’t leave poetry completely behind. “It feels, the longer that I'm in the astronomy field…like those two worlds suddenly began to collide. When I first switched fields, I was kind of having an existential crisis..Like, I feel like I had two different phases of my life, but now I see more and more how storytelling is a part of the reason why I wanted to go into astronomy.”
Lauren Albin is the director of the O. Wayne Rollins Planetarium and Observatory at Young Harris College in Young Harris, Georgia.
