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AAS - 2014

The Winter American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting is the largest meeting of professional astronomers in the world. NITARP educators attend an AAS first to meet their team, then they go home and work remotely for much of the year, and then attend an AAS to present their results.  At any given AAS, then, we could have two NITARP classes attending - those finishing up, and those getting started. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

The 2013 and 2014 NITARP teams attended the 2014 January AAS meeting in National Harbor, MD (outside of Washington, DC). The 2013 class was presenting results and the 2014 class was starting up. We had a lot of alumni raise their own money to come back as well. We sent about 75 people to the AAS and had a grand time. Please see the special article on NITARP at the AAS. One of our participants, Peggy Piper, participated in a Congressional briefing on Thursday! All the posters we presented are linked from the team's pages below, except for HG-WELS and SIRXS, because they are the two new teams.

Quotes

  • [student:] astronomers .. are normal people who have chosen a career that interests them, but they are also interested in telling jokes, learning about things they don’t know, have hobbies, and other things that are just like everyone else. I am not sure what I thought they would be like instead, but I was surprised anyway.
  • [student:] Thank you so much for the extraordinary opportunity that this program offered me. I truly enjoyed the entire experience and am exhilarated to say that I participated in real research. The opportunity was incredible and one that I will treasure forever.
  • [student:] I left [the AAS] wanting to look at the next BRC and want to keep learning astronomy.
  • [student:] After seeing professional astronomers present and give lectures, I do believe that astronomers are some of the smartest people around but I also believe they are also some of the most curious because almost every single person at the AAS meeting discovered something new that the world has never known before.
  • [student:] The thing I liked most about the program was the fact that high school students were given the opportunity to participate in significant research. [..] The fact that no one knew the answer was extremely exciting. I never enjoyed the regurgitation of information that high school provides us. I understand that it is necessary to learn the basics and the only way to learn that is to solve problems that have already been solved. But this program has given me the exclusive opportunity to experience in simple terms: real life. Thank you and I hope the program continues to provide remarkable experiences.

Related Teams

AAS - 2014