Knox, along with Macalester College, Augustana College, Coe College, and the University of Iowa, is part of the MACRO Consortium, which maintains and operates a remotely controlled robotic telescope in Sonoita, Arizona. The consortium’s guiding principle is to provide transformational educational experiences with lasting impact, while empowering students through hands-on problem-solving and scientific discovery to become enduring contributors to society.
The MACRO Consortium was founded in fall 2022, when Macalester, Coe, and Augustana assumed stewardship of the telescope from the University of Iowa. Associate Professor of Physics Nathalie Haurberg ’06 learned about the consortium through a Knox alumnus at Iowa and pursued a partial membership in the consortium in 2023. After working with the program for more than a year, Knox became a full-time partner in January 2025 and has immediately reaped the benefits.
“It’s been extremely rewarding. We’re getting a lot more time out of the telescope since we began to participate fully,” Haurberg said. “This collaborative work model and the opportunity to work on a research-grade telescope doing real research in astronomy with research scientists, faculty, students, post-docs is very rare for undergraduates… and our students have access to all of them.”
Alumni Alexis Riggs ’24 and Philip Griffin ’20 co-authored and contributed to the consortium’s first peer-reviewed paper for publication. Both are currently in graduate school, with Riggs at Minnesota and Griffin at Iowa. The paper, which was published in the Astrophysical Journal, presents new findings on two stars in the Rho Ophiuchi star formation complex. The opportunities and experiences are ones Riggs will not take for granted, especially since she is now a published researcher.
“Working with MACRO has been such an amazing experience for me. I’ve gotten to work with a wonderful group of people on a wide range of research topics, including looking at variable stars in tandem with the VLA, collecting spectroscopic data on hundreds of emission line stars, and helping with the continual development and operation of the consortium’s shared telescope in Arizona.”
Plans are in place for more work with the telescopes and the consortium as joint classes between the participating institutions continue. The program and collaboration are one of a kind and another example of the immersive research opportunities students can find at Knox.
“Students also get the attention and mentorship you expect at a liberal arts college. It is about as unique an opportunity as you can get,” Haurberg said.