Janet Akyüz Mattei

Who was Janet Akyüz Mattei?

Janet Akyüz Mattei was a Turkish-American astronomer who was the director of the American Association of Variable Star Observers from 1973 to 2004.

Mattei was born in Bodrum, Turkey to a Jewish family and educated in the American Collegiate Institute, İzmir. She came to the United States for university studies, and attended Brandeis University in Waltham, MA on the Wien Scholarship. Later, she was offered a job by Dorrit Hoffleit at the Maria Mitchell Observatory in Nantucket, Massachusetts.

She worked at Leander McCormick Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia from 1970 to 1972 and received her M.A. in Astronomy from the University of Virginia in 1972 and her Ph.D. in Astronomy from Ege University in Izmir, Turkey, 1982.

As head of the AAVSO for over 30 years, she collected observations of variable stars by amateur astronomers from around the world. She coordinated many important observing programs between amateur observers and professional astronomers. She was also keenly interested in education and student science projects.