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The Heidi Hammel Scrapbook  
Childhood, this kid moved around
Heidi's family moved seven times before settling in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, in 1970. As a kid Heidi loved math, playing Monopoly, and music. She played piano and percussion and sang in a chorus.
Heidi at ten years
Heidi at nine months
Heidi says, I loved hanging out outside
Hooked on stars

In college at MIT—The Massachusetts Institute of Technology—Heidi took her first astronomy class. When she started taking pictures of the night skies, she knew that watching the stars and planets would be her life's work. Heidi discovered she had a real knack for gathering and interpreting data with the college's telescopes. She even used her talents to improve the telescopes.

Although Heidi was hooked on astronomy, she still loved music. At MIT she sang and played guitar in a bluegrass band, and during graduate school she went to China to play percussion in a Chinese opera.

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