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AAS - 2012

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 2011 and 2012 NITARP teams attended the 2012 January AAS meeting in Austin, TX. The 2011 class was presenting results and the 2012 class was starting up. We sent about 60 people to the AAS (the largest delegation to date) and had a grand time. Please see the special article on NITARP at the AAS. We also got a smattering of coverage in local media outlets.

Quotes

  • When asked about their future plans, I heard each student describe their college hopes and their plans seemed bigger and more full of promise than I had heard in the past. I believe having the attention of such a distinguished audience raised their expectations of themselves.
  • This year was great! I really felt comfortable making my way around to discuss not only what I teach, but also what my research was about.
  • After two days of being totally overwhelmed by all the high level science going on around me, it was a relief and simply awesome to see that these professional astronomers were also somewhat clueless about my own research. This was such an amazing capstone to the NITARP experience, actually feeling I was on nearly the same level as everyone else presenting.
  • Astronomy has gone from just stargazing to a rigorous and rewarding field of work in my eyes; before this program I clearly had a misconception of what astronomers did at work.
  • One of the things that I did not anticipate was being so PROUD of our work. I was convinced I would be nervous and unsure of myself as people I envisioned as being more important than myself grilled me with questions. I was pleased to find that nearly everyone who stopped by our posters was inquisitive, supportive and seemed genuinely interested. I also surprised myself with how comfortable I became with talking to these people as they came by and asked their questions.

Related Teams

AAS - 2012