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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

  • I wasn't expecting just how nice everyone was, especially to my high school-aged group. The astronomers I talked to all seemed very interested and impressed with what I was doing at the AAS and asked a lot of questions about NITARP. It made me feel that I had contributed something valuable to the astronomy community.
  • This experience made me develop a higher respect for astronomers and the intensive work they commit themselves to.
  • I discovered that meaningful astronomical research does not require access to meter-class observatories or a Beowulf cluster. Given the right professional to collaborate with, it is something that I'm able to do while still working at [my job].
  • 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.
  • Again, this is a fabulous experience -- I feel like after several years I am understanding more of the talks, able to engage in a real conversation with astronomers, ask questions one on one, interpret more on posters -- just feel more astronomically literate.

Related Teams

AAS - 2013