Yale University’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage (IPCH) is thrilled to partner with the Avangrid Foundation for another year of advancements in scientific research and public engagement.
Empowering Future Scientists: IPCH Receives Avangrid Foundation Grant
The Foundation has generously granted funding to support a one-year postgraduate associate position at IPCH. The position offers early-career training to emerging professionals in scientific analysis and educational outreach, aiming to make cultural heritage preservation more accessible and inspiring to the public and young people in the greater New Haven area.
After a competitive search, Katelin Hallchurch will serve as the postgraduate associate in cultural heritage science and outreach for the first six months, followed by Charlotte Starnes for the remaining six months. Their appointments bring a wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm to the program, ensuring its success and impact.
Charlotte Sterns conducting X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) at the Yale Center for British Art.
Career Growth for Early-Career Scientists
For Hallchurch and Starnes, this position will offer a unique opportunity to develop skills in scientific research, while making their work visible and accessible to new audiences. The postgraduate associates will work with IPCH’s Heritage Science Research Lab to conduct analytical work on Yale’s museum and library collections while also supporting exhibitions, treatments, and collection research for ongoing projects.
They will also prepare analyses for the Spring 2026 Yale College course, “Technologies of the Book,” a hands-on, project-based introduction to the technologies of bookmaking across the Mediterranean in the late medieval and early modern periods. These opportunities will expand their skillsets in preparation for future roles as conservation scientists and heritage science professionals.
Commitment to Education and Outreach
Outside of the lab, the new position will allow for the planning and delivery of object-based, science-focused demonstrations in partnership with Yale’s Pathways to Science and Pathways to Arts & Humanities Programs.
Katelyn Hallchurch introduces the activity to students during the 2025 West Campus Science Festival.
In October 2025, Katelin Hallchurch led IPCH’s contributions to the Yale West Campus Science Festival, hosted by Yale’s Pathways to Science Program. Conservation scientists from the Heritage Science Research Lab engaged with 150 middle school students from New Haven, West Haven, and Orange and volunteers from across Yale’s campus.
During the festival, students identified surprising materials used to make colorful pigments and traveled to IPCH’s science laboratories to “solve the dating mystery,” an activity that introduced a range of analytical techniques to identify blue pigments in art objects. Students handled replicas of art objects inspired by Yale’s collections, operated scientific instruments, read and compared findings, and proved hypotheses of when each object was made.
2025 Avangrid Postgraduate Associate Katelyn Hallchurch assists students during the West Campus Science Festival.
The interactive activity demonstrated the Institute’s unique potential for using collection objects and artifacts to engage school-age learners with chemistry and materials science concepts. It also challenged Hallchurch to translate her work and skills into an activity suitable for middle school students, a practice that drew from expertise in science communication and age-appropriate pedagogies.
The future holds more opportunities to bring real-world science concepts to new audiences by tapping into existing outreach programs across Yale. Planning is underway for the 2026 Pathways Summer Scholars program, where high school students will participate in hands-on activities that explore more techniques and principles of conservation science.
Looking Forward
This collaboration aligns seamlessly with Yale’s mission to improve the world through research, education, preservation, and practice, as well as with IPCH’s mission to promote cultural heritage through interdisciplinary research and educational opportunities.
2022 Avangrid Postdoctoral Associate Dr. Avary Taylor analyzes ancient Assyrian stone reliefs.
It is the third grant IPCH has received from the Avangrid Foundation to further art conservation science and dynamic public engagement. Past grants have funded the second postdoctoral years of Dr. Marcie Wiggins and Dr. Alice Knaf in 2020, Dr. Knaf’s preservation of ancient Mesopotamian heritage through material analysis and undergraduate mentorship in 2021, and Dr. Avary Taylor’s re-imagining of ancient Assyrian reliefs through advanced imaging techniques in 2022.
This year’s Avangrid Foundation grant will continue to bring scientific research to outreach and engagement opportunities, enabling students to discover new career paths, explore the collections of Yale’s museums and libraries, and appreciate the interconnectedness of science, the arts, and the humanities.
