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AAS - 2013

The Winter American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting is the largest meeting of professional astronomers in the world. NITARP educators attend an AAS first to meet their team, then they go home and work remotely for much of the year, and then attend an AAS to present their results.  At any given AAS, then, we could have two NITARP classes attending - those finishing up, and those getting started. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

We were out in force at the AAS 2013 meeting in Long Beach, CA! A record number of NITARP-affiliated people attended, including the 2012 class finishing up and the 2013 class getting going. The 80 or so NITARP-affiliated folks made up about 3% of the AAS attendees.

Special article on AAS attendees!  And don't miss Danielle Miller's blog!

Quotes

  • This whole experience with NITARP has been amazing. I loved the chance to meet so many inspiring people. The astronomers we worked with were so excited about their work that I got excited, too.
  • I was impressed over and over again by the students' command of the material -- clearly they were fully invested in this project. They explained their work with clarity and enthusiasm. I think that more than anything else, hearing these kids talk about their work really convinced me how valuable this experience is for students.
  • Before ever having experienced an American Astronomical Society meeting, I thought I was well versed in the astronomer's culture. After taking numerous classes, doing hands-on labs, and even having worked in the field of astronomy education for several years now I also thought I knew what an astronomer did. My experience has been one of culture shock. [...] The AAS conference is a factory for knowledge and truth about the Universe. As David Helfand, president of the society said in his opening remarks, "We do astronomy because it defines us as human beings." I'm just now truly beginning to understand.
  • [The students] were smart, well spoken, honest, knowledgeable, and it's official, I can't wait to pick the students who will be working with me and [get them started].
  • This taught me a valuable lesson about the nature of astronomy as well as all sciences: no matter how much we observe and discover, there will always be more questions. [...] It is quite possible that we will never have all the answers, but we will always continue to ask. That is what I find most beautiful about astronomy.

Related Teams

AAS - 2013