Chelen Johnson
The Luminosity, Accretion Disk, and Dust Team (LADDT) : combining UV, optical, and near infrared data for active galactic nuclei to look for a relation between the color of their accretion disks, the emission from their dust and their luminosity.
I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to participate in the NITARP program for the past year. I gained experience that I never thought I would be capable of, gained many new resources, and learned more that I ever expected. It has been a very unique and productive experience and I am proud of both the scientific research we accomplished and the educational aspects that were brought to our school systems.
I already had a pretty good idea of how astronomers do science, but NITARP helped me see more exactly how data is collected, processed, and analyzed. It helped me also see that I can do astronomy myself, and can make a contribution beyond my own classroom. Not only can I analyze astronomical data to find scientifically useful results, but I can publish my work as a poster and be part of this community. I did not feel like a stranger or usurper or even out of place – it felt like I belonged.
The surprising part of our research was the time we spent on communication, and the value of saying something out-loud has to understanding it.
