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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

  • [student:] This program was obviously very rigorous, but did very much help to me outline the type of path I would continue to pursue. Being with people who devote so much time and energy into their projects really brought out my interest in astronomy further, but also a new level of respect for all the incredible work astronomers do. It doesn't compare to many other careers, dealing with incredible math and analysing such difficult data.
  • I have realized how many different things there are to study in the universe and the different roles that people in the community can take on. Astronomy research can be complex, involve multiple layers of investigation, and play out over long time scales.
  • Teachers are energized and inspired by the program[..] Working on real questions of Astronomy, and using quantitative tools to understand truly awesome phenomenae reminds us of what excited us as undergrads, back at the beginning of our professional journeys. And spending a week working side by side with our most motivated students reminds of the true joy of teaching, which is to share the wonder of this world with a new generation.
  • [student:] Presenting the poster was also great because the people that I talked to had such great advice and ideas. One of the best things that I learned about was all the different places to learn astronomy. I got free magazines, and website names that are absolute gold mines of information and I’m really excited to explore those and learn from them. Learning about the formation of stars through the program and how astronomers take and interpret data was interesting to me. It helped me get a taste of astronomy and it’s what made me decide that I want to go into astronomy.
  • [student:] This program has given me the courage to apply to numerous ivy league schools and pursue a major in astrophysics. My academic pursuits are far from over, but through my participation with NITARP I feel confident knowing that I have some background understanding of the types of astronomical research I will experience in college.

AAS - 2017