Hamptons Observatory (HO) is delighted to announce that former Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. has accepted our invitation to be a member of Hamptons Observatory’s Advisory Board.
Donna L. McCormick, the Executive Director of Hamptons Observatory, states: “It is truly an honor to have former Assemblyman Thiele join our Advisory Board. He has had a long, distinguished career as a public servant and has had an significant, positive impact on the East End community, which includes collaborating with one of our founders, Susan Harder, a renown dark sky advocate, to enact legislation to mitigate light pollution in the Hamptons. Fred helped establish Hamptons Observatory and throughout the years has been one of its strongest supporters. He himself has had a lifelong interest in astronomy and appreciates our organization’s value to the community. We look forward to working together with Fred to ensure our organization’s viability, growth and contribution to education.”
Fred states: “I am pleased to serve as an advisor to the Hamptons Observatory. Since my childhood, I have been an amateur astronomer and have owned a telescope for more than 60 years. It is a passion I now have more time to enjoy with retirement. I look forward to working with Hamptons Observatory to bring the wonders of the cosmos to as many East End residents as possible.”
Other members of the Hamptons Observatory Advisory Board include:
- Dr. Mike Inglis, an astrophysicist who has used some of the world’s largest telescopes in his research, has authored numerous academic and popular books, is a retired Professor of Astronomy at Suffolk County Community College, and is an accomplished astrophotographer;
- Dr. Jeffrey Owen Katz, formerly Research and Observatory Director at the Custer Institute, he’s a multidisciplinary scientist and serial inventor currently working on novel applications of spectroscopy to medical diagnostics;
- Dr. Matthew Putman, a scientist, educator, musician, and film/stage producer, he’s a quantum computing expert, a founding member of the Quantum Industry Coalition, and is known for his work in nanotechnology;
- Dr. Alan Rice, a retired professor of geophysics, geology, sustainability, oceanography, physics, and engineering at various institutes, including the Division of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the American Museum of Natural History;
- Dava Sobel, an acclaimed science author who has focused particularly on astronomy and whose works have been made into documentaries/mini-series, she’s a Pulitzer finalist and Poetry Editor of Scientific American.
– About Fred W. Thiele Jr. —
Fred W. Thiele Jr. (born August 8, 1953) is a lifelong resident of Sag Harbor. He graduated Albany Law School in 1979, was admitted to the New York Bar in 1980 and then served as counsel to the then-Assemblyman John Behan of Montauk. From 1982-1987, Fred was Southampton Town Attorney and was involved in the implementation of open space and environmental zoning and land preservation programs. In November 1987, he was elected to the Suffolk County Legislature where he enacted legislation that nominated Peconic Bay and Gardiner’s Bay for the National Estuary Program. In November 1991, Fred was elected Southampton Town Supervisor. He enacted a number of important initiatives including open space preservation, affordable housing, environmental protection, comprehensive long-term planning, economic development and government reform. From 1995 to 2012, he was elected to the New York State Assembly for District 2, and from 2013 until his retirement in 2024, he served District 1. As an Assemblyman, Fred authored groundbreaking legislation which created the Peconic Bay Community Preservation Fund Act (CPF). He also was pivotal in other environmental initiatives, including State funds for improving water quality, Peconic Bay and South Shore Estuary projects, farmland preservation, and State acquisition of critical environmental parcels. He is a lifelong amateur astronomer and had even considered a career in science; as he put it “I had a telescope and a weather station. I liked math and numbers. But in my senior year of high school I took calculus. That’s when I said ‘I think political science is my science.’” Fred helped establish Hamptons Observatory and, over the years, has been a staunch supporter of its work. We are honored to have him as a member of our Advisory Board.
– About Hamptons Observatory —
Hamptons Observatory (est. 2005 and formerly known as Montauk Observatory), is a publicly supported NYS 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to fostering interest in science with an emphasis on astronomy. To that end, we hold frequent lectures and other events. We are also in the process of repairing or replacing our astronomical observatory (on the campus of the Ross School in East Hampton, NY); eventually it will be accessible over the internet to students, teachers, researchers and the general public.
We offer our programs to the public free of charge to make them as accessible as possible to all. Those who attend our free, in-person and virtual lectures include people from across the US and abroad.
Recordings of our lectures may be found on https://bit.ly/ObservatoryVideos
Our aim is to provide informative, quality educational programs to inspire and educate the community about the wonders of their universe. Our speakers have included Randy Bresnik, a commander of the International Space Station, and his wife Rebecca who is Associate General Counsel for International Matters, NASA; Dr. Avi Loeb, Founder and Director of the Galileo Project, Harvard University; Dr. Paul Steinfield, discoverer of quasicrystals, and co-founder and Director of Princeton University’s Center for Theoretical Science; Tiffany Morgan, Deputy Director of the Mars Exploration Program; Dr. David Helfand, Dept of Astronomy, Columbia University; Dr. Rainer Weiss who won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics; and Dava Sobel, a renown science author and Pulitzer finalist.