Chelen Johnson
Mining current optical and infrared databases to find variable active galactic nuclei.
I rarely get out among other teachers in the same field as I am, with similar interest and motivations, and even less often do I have time to be in the company of professional scientists to see and hear what they are doing, how it is being done, what technologies are being used, etc. Without this type of program to get me to a meeting like the AAS I would never be able to put all of this together.
The experience has changed my understanding of astronomy and how it is done, but not of astronomers.
I kept wishing this program had been available when I was a kid. Wanting to be a scientist, I had no role model or support and never pursued it.
