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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

  • My general impression is how big and varied the whole conference was. I knew the number coming in - but sometimes our imagination fails us. To see all the posters, papers, booths, and talks was truly astonishing.
  • Astronomers all have different career paths and can do multiple different things with their work.
  • 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.

Related Teams

AAS - 2012