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AAS - 2017

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 2016 and 2017 NITARP teams attended the 2017 January AAS meeting in Dallas, TX. The 2016 class was presenting results and the 2017 class was starting up. We had many alumni raise money to come back as well. We sent about 50 people to the AAS and had a grand time. Please see the special article on NITARP at the AAS. All of the posters we presented are here:


Quotes

  • The AAS conference was my first true science conference and everything I’d longed to be a part of since I started reading science and science fiction in junior high. From the first briefing with Luisa to the plenaries to the smaller sessions, I felt I was mainlining whatever drug it is that geeks get addicted to.
  • [student:] I plan to attend college and major in astrophysics. I hope to someday work for NASA or a private research facility. This experience gave me the confidence I needed to solidify these career goals, transforming my fear into impatience.
  • Before attending AAS, I didn’t realize astronomy was so “specialized.” I thought about astronomy in general terms, but didn’t realize how narrowly focused astronomy can be (stellar astronomy, cosmology, astrobiology, etc.).
  • The scientific method cannot be narrowed down to 6 simple steps. The process is very much ingrained in trial and error and coming up with new solutions to problems.
  • [student:] I’ve learned to be less critical of myself. I’ve realized that the actual learning process is much more valuable than always getting the correct answer. I’ve been less discouraged when I get confused because I know understand that it is good to be confused, and that even the greatest astronomers get confused by problems.

AAS - 2017