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.
The most interesting thing [during this whole NITARP experience] I did was work with catalogs I had not seen before and those I had that I had not a clue what to do with all that data. I now have a much clearer picture and my understanding has grown beyond what I think I could have ever done before.
One of my students at Niles West had become interested in GRBs as we thought they were the results of mergers of black holes [but we learned this was wrong at an AAS plenary talk]. My student thought it was interesting that scientists could change their minds about how things worked.
To be the first group to perform such calculations is an experience of a lifetime.
