2006 symposium (Washington, DC)

What: 2006 NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellows Symposium, American Astronomical Society Meeting, Washington, DC (AAS Description)
When: Saturday, 7 January 1:00-6:00 PM and Sunday, 8 January 9:00 AM-6:00 PM
Where: Marriott Wardman Park Hotel

The NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship (AAPF) program is designed to support promising young scientists who combine their research with education and/or outreach activities. During this two-day weekend session, the NSF fellows will discuss their research and education/outreach activities with invited faculty mentors and any AAS members who wish to attend. The goals are to learn from each other's experiences, to listen to suggestions from the audience, and to foster new collaborations. The session will also feature informal discussion panels on topics such as integrating research with teaching and outreach, balancing family life with a scientific career, and making the transition from postdoc to faculty.

Program:

Saturday, January 7, 2006, 1-6PM
1:00 Welcoming remarks - Wayne Van Citters (NSF)
1:15 Keynote talk - Chris Mihos (Case Western)
2:00 Henry Roe - Cracks, geysers, and cryovolcanoes: How Titan feeds its insatiable appetite for methane
2:15 Kelle Cruz - What's the deal with Low-Mass Stars, Brown Dwarfs, and Planets? [PPT file]
2:30 Jennifer Sokoloski - A New Kind of Nova
2:45 Jennifer Hoffman - Polarized Line Profiles as Diagnostics of Circumstellar Geometry in Type IIn Supernovae
3:00 Coffee break
3:30 Jeff Bary - Accretion Variability in T Tauri Stars/Pre-Service Teacher Training: A Hands-on Introductory Astronomy Seminar
3:40 Erik Rosolowsky - Teaching the teachers: How astronomy graduate students receive training to teach [PDF link]
4:00 Astronomy Education Research - Phil Sadler (Harvard-CfA)
4:45 Discussion panel - How To Be a Good Research Advisor
Neal Evans (UT Austin), Karen Bjorkman (Toledo), Andy Sheinis (Wisconsin), Sheila Kannappan (UT Austin)
6:30 Symposium dinner
Sunday morning, January 8, 9AM-12:30PM
9:00 Coffee break
9:30 NSF Senior Review presentation and discussion - Eileen Friel (NSF)
10:45 Joe Barranco - Three-dimensional simulations of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in the dusty midplane of protoplanetary disks
10:55 Ginny McSwain - Searching for Quiet X-Ray Binaries [PPT file]
11:05 Erik Rosolowsky - Science by Stamp Collecting -- Comparing Giant Molecular Clouds across Galaxies [PDF link]
11:15 Anne Metevier - The Tully-Fisher Relation at 0.9 < z < 1.4 in the Extended Groth Strip
11:30 Discussion panel - Improving Diversity in Astronomy
Keivan Stassun (Vanderbilt), Pat Knezek (NOAO), Kim Coble (Chicago State)
12:30 Lunch
Sunday afternoon, 2-6:30PM
2:00 Sheila Kannappan - Early-Type Galaxies on the Blue Color-Stellar Mass Sequence [PDF link]
2:15 Eric Gawiser - The MUSYC Census of Protogalaxies at z=3 [PPT file]
2:30 Dragan Huterer - Is the large-scale microwave background cosmic? [PDF file]
2:45 Josh Faber - Einstein, for experts and beginners [PDF file]
3:00 Greg Madsen - Ionizing the Galaxy: An Australian Perspective
3:15 John Feldmeier - Introducing VICS: The Virgo Intra-Cluster Stars Project
3:30 Coffee break
4:00 Kathy Rhode - Globular Clusters as Tracers of Hierarchical Galaxy Formation and Dark Matter Halos
4:15 Jessica Rosenberg - Dusty Dwarfs in the Local Universe
4:30 Anne Metevier - The Hartnell Astronomy Short Course: Providing Research Opportunities for Underserved Community College Students
4:50 Ginny McSwain - Astronomy at Yale: A Collaborative Exhibit by the Department of Astronomy and the Peabody Museum of Natural History
5:00 Discussion panel - Exploring Non-Traditional Outreach Methods
Chris Mihos (Case Western), Phil Plait (Sonoma State), Mark Trodden (Syracuse)
6:00 Closing remarks - Dana Lehr (NSF)

Other Links of Interest: