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AAS - 2014

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.

The 2013 and 2014 NITARP teams attended the 2014 January AAS meeting in National Harbor, MD (outside of Washington, DC). The 2013 class was presenting results and the 2014 class was starting up. We had a lot of alumni raise their own money to come back as well. We sent about 75 people to the AAS and had a grand time. Please see the special article on NITARP at the AAS. One of our participants, Peggy Piper, participated in a Congressional briefing on Thursday! All the posters we presented are linked from the team's pages below, except for HG-WELS and SIRXS, because they are the two new teams.

Quotes

  • [student:] This experience totally changed my view of astronomy and my view of the people who are a part of it. Initially, I thought that astronomy was filled with emotionless scientists who stare at their computers all day. I found that this was not the case at all and I met some of the most interesting people through this program [..]
  • It was delight to watch the students explain the poster – usually followed by shock as the person listening noticed they were middle and high school students! Here is to the next generation – they are amazing.
  • [student:] I went to the public policy session that had a panel of people from the government. †I was surprised to learn that the people who act as advisors and such for science policy in the Congress actually have strong backgrounds (PhD/experience) in science.
  • Through this whole process I’ve learned that astronomy research is about connections. Who you meet, what they do, and how each has a part in a greater picture. Sharing information, connections and discussions.
  • A few different people asked if we were going to publish our results which I thought was a pretty big compliment -- and I mentioned it to our scientist.

Related Teams

AAS - 2014