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AAS - 2019

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 2018 and 2019 NITARP teams attended the 2019 January AAS meeting in Seattle, WA. The 2018 class was presenting results and the 2019 class was starting up. We had 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:

2018 Teams:

NITARP Management:

Returning Alumni Teams:

 

Quotes

  • [student:] Initially, I wanted to pursue a career in either music education or performance as a part of the more classical community of music. The AAS conference changed that. I have never before in my life seen a more collaborative group than the AAS. The support I had while presenting my poster was unreal. This made me reflect on my pursuits in music. That community could not be any more critical or degrading than it already is. I want music in my life, but I never want to be a part of that community. This experience set me on a path, one that might one day lead me to the forefront of human knowledge hopefully for me to help push that boundary.
  • [scientist not involved in NITARP team:] Seeing such a diverse group [of students ...], all of them really sharp - I told them, I am a physicist, not an astronomer, so they had to explain it to me... in one beat, they backed-up, tag-teamed me and explained the whole poster — that was awesome! Tells me the world is in good hands.
  • I wondered how our work would be received during the poster session. It was encouraging to see how genuinely interested and supportive the astronomers that visited were.
  • Astronomers are a lot nicer than I thought they would be, and they’re much more willing to chat about their research than I expected.
  • For astronomy, I underestimated the amount of data analysis and programming required compared to observation skills. It seems like introductory high school and college courses cover a good amount of content but not the relevant research skills.

Related Teams

AAS - 2019