Chelen Johnson
This virtual team collects all independent research presented in 2015, and done by NITARP or Spitzer alumni with (or without) students outside of a formal NITARP team.
My ideas about astronomy has changed significantly, thanks to NITARP. Quite simply, I didn't understand the role of archival data in modern astronomical research. Previously, I considered it an intellectual exercise, work suitable for a reference librarian, but not real research. I now know it to comprise the future of astronomy, and the very picture of MOST of tomorrow's scientific research.
There are very few of us that teach astronomy in our county, so I'd really like to improve the astronomy program in the county.
To me what stood out [at my first AAS] was the wide variety of work – from characterization of the structure of the Milky Way (more of a challenge than I ever knew!) to the search for and characterization of exoplanets to the understanding of how quasar evolution relates to the origins of the Universe.
