Summer Visit - 2023 - AGNatha

Quotes

• One moment that was incredibly impactful for my students was when they heard from other scientists on the web conference and people were talking about “not belonging,” self doubt, and feeling “out of place” in their careers. That really resonated with my students and they told me how relieved they felt when other people said they felt that way too. They seemed much less anxious after hearing that and were more excited to push forward. Both of my students want to pursue Astronomy in some aspect in their higher education and I think hearing those comments from real scientists showed them that they don’t have to be perfect or the smartest person in the room to do Astronomy (or science in general). After that web conference, one of my students said “I’m going to remember this experience for the rest of my life.”
• [Qualities of an astronomer are:] Patience, perseverance, passion, adaptability, flexibility
• I was surprised how quickly the group sort of meshed together and got to work. Not to say all the students were best friends by the end of the week, but I was surprised how quickly they were willing to work together and share ideas and contribute to the project. I honestly expected it to be more of the teachers teaching the students and then hopefully when we left everyone would feel confident to continue the work. I think we all picked a great group of students who hit the ground running and understood they were there to work and everyone was as well versed as they could be on the project on day one.
• For me, the uncertainty associated with some of the data was surprising. In a chemistry context, where the researcher has control of the sample the data is much more direct, associating peaks in spectra with structure in the molecules. The idea that we are starting a project with a catalog of AGN, but are only 90% sure that the objects are AGN (R90) surprised me as I usually think of astronomy as much more mathematical and underestimate the differences in how data is collected compared to chemistry.
• [I was surprised by] The extent to which we have collected so much information that discoveries can be made just through analysis of information that we have had for years. In many cases, [this] is not how I would normally think of research, but this appears to be key in astronomy and other areas of science where the data is there but it takes the right effort to find the connection. This is not how discovery is presented in popular media and in stereotypical representations of science.

Related Teams

• AGNatha/Gorjian