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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

  • 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.
  • The experience I had at the 2012 AAS meeting as well as the entire NITARP experience will change the way I teach astronomy. Having spent 5 days meeting and discussing authentic scientific research with so many people from many different facilities was extremely rejuvenating as an educator. This year was so much different than last year having a poster to share with others!
  • Astronomers all have different career paths and can do multiple different things with their work.
  • During this meeting, I really got to see science up close. Everyone here was on the [outer edges] of astronomy, carving the path for humans in space. I saw how science was conducted and because I took part in this conference and contributed to the new information gathered, I feel like I am a part of something more.
  • Astronomers dream about above and beyond. They laugh when someone says impossible. When other people say impossible, astronomers say just give me a couple years, a large computer, and some duct tape and I'll have a working model.

Related Teams

AAS - 2012