AAS - 2026

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 2025 and 2026 NITARP teams are attending the 2026 January AAS meeting in Phoenix, AZ. The 2025 class is presenting results and the 2026 all-volunteer self-funded alumni class is starting up. We sent about 35 people to the AAS and had a grand time. Please see the press release on NITARP from the AAS, and the special online article about NITARP at the AAS. All of the posters we presented are here. (In addition to the iPoster sessions as listed here, the physical versions of the 2025 teams' posters were up at the IPAC booth all day Tuesday.)

2025 teams:

220.01 Edwards et al., “Stellar Rotation Within the Beta Pictoris Moving Group Using TESS Lightcurves”
403.01 Molohon et al., “Student and Teachers as Scientists: The Impact of Authentic Astronomy Research Experiences”
403.05 Pfahler et al., “From NITARP Experience to Community Practice”
406.04 Cullen et al., “Using Spitzer Space Telescope data to catalog short-term variable AGN for determining the size of accretion disks”

Alumni

104.08 Sperling et al., "Evaluating Educational Outcomes of the HERA Secondary–Higher Education High-Altitude Ballooning Research Program Across Pilot Sites"
136.08 Cohen & Sperling, "METEOR: A Low-Cost, APRS-Based Flight Computer for High-Altitude Balloon Missions"
217.04 Schwarz et al., “Star Finders: Assembling a Multi-Wavelength Catalog of Young Stellar Objects in Serpens Main”
403.02 Kuper et al., “From young stars to active galaxies: Development of foundational lessons for authentic astronomy research”
403.04 Newland et al., “Photometric Catalog Integration in a Python Framework for Spectral Energy Distribution Construction and Young Stellar Object Classification” - possibly better formatted version here
403.06 Bechtel, “NITARP Influences Multiple Generations, Communities, and Careers”
403.07 Blackwell et al., “Stellar Life Cycles: Improved Methods of Education”

Quotes

[my goals are to] Keep on doing research! I am hooked!! This had never felt like a realistic goal prior to my participation in NITARP. I am now comfortable with the idea that I can go and get any data I want and pursue learning something new about anything that intrigues me. NITARP is truly and completely transformative for those directly involved while being leveraged, so effectively, to carry this impact forward into the future through all of the contacts that you will make throughout your career.
The role of partnering with educators to both do research and use that research to create curricular materials is something I am learning as a NITARP participant. Much of my career had me working in a vacuum or a silo. It’s refreshing to share the workload and the learning with other professionals who care about the topic.
Learning through application made this experience clear, relevant, and effective for solving our research challenges... which means that I now have a sufficient understanding of how the software works so that I could integrate it into future work with my students. Closing this loop from a professional development/learning experience back to impacting meaningfully and inspirationally is very seldom accomplished, yet NITARP does it routinely and effectively. It makes NITARP such an impactful program... its outcomes propagate through me to my students, my colleagues, and ultimately into those that choose to join the family of NASA and other professionals choosing astronomy and space exploration as their careers. NITARP has the best cost/benefit ratio of any professional development experience I have ever had... so much impact rippling out into the future!
The biggest new resource [I learned about through NITARP] would be the data. I have a much greater understanding of the scope of data that is out there AND you taught me how to begin accessing it. For that I am forever grateful!
[NITARP] positively changed the way I teach, see myself (as a researcher, mentor, and a teacher), and understand my students.

AAS - 2026

Quotes

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