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Summer Visit - 2012 - HR4AGN

The summer visit to Caltech is 3-4 days long and is the only time during the year of work when all the participants on the team come together in person to work intensively on the data. Generally, each educator may bring up to two students to the summer visit that are paid for by NITARP, and they may raise funds to bring two more. The teams work at Caltech; the summer visit typically includes a half-day tour of JPL, which is a favorite site for group photos. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

The HR4AGN team came to visit in August 2012. The core team educators attended, plus 12 students, and one additional scientist.  The scientist mentor is Dr. Varoujan Gorjian. IPAC staff member Jacob Llamas (SSC) assisted, as did Dr. Jean-Christophe Mauduit (SSC).

Quotes

  • This experience changed the way I think about astronomy. Before this program, I wasn't sure what astronomy entailed. Now, I think I have a better understanding of the work astronomers do, especially the complexity of their work. There are many facets of astronomy that I had never thought of before. [..] I guess my previous conception of astronomy was that it was mostly pictures, not physical data.
  • [student:] This program really showed me that astronomy is not as much of a hands on science, which I have discovered I prefer. I still am quite interested in the field of astronomy, but I have realized that I would be more suited to possibly become a chemist because it is much more lab based.
  • [student:] I think [we did] scientific research because we are using the data to make graphs.
  • The most interesting thing I did was organize data and actually understand what it meant.
  • [student:] [This experience] made me love [astronomy] even more. It gives me even more of a reason to become an astronomer.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2012 - HR4AGN