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.
It was very special to be in the room when the announcement of planet Kepler 10b (an estimated 1.4 X the size of the Earth) was discovered. I turned to my student Inga and asked, "How does it feel to be one of the first people on planet Earth to know about this discovery?" She replied, "I never thought of it like that ... it's pretty cool."
I was impressed with how poised the [NITARP 2012] students were and how they were able to answer all of my questions. Each of them spoke to how NITARP had been a very positive experience. All of the young women I spoke with talked about wanting to pursue science in college.
There was purpose to my wandering. [..]Last year [the AAS] was logistically and culturally educational, this year was truly informative. I felt much less out of place.