What: 2010 NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellows Symposium, American Astronomical Society Meeting, Washington, D.C. (AAS Description)
When: Saturday, 2 January 1:00-6:00 PM and Sunday, 3 January 9:00 AM-6:00 PM
Where: Marriott Wardman Park Hotel
Fellows and guests at the 2010 AAS meeting in Washington, D.C.
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 of interest to current fellows.
All members of the astronomical community are welcome and encouraged to attend.
This includes in particular graduate students who might be considering applying for an AAPF this year or in the future, as well as any other scientists or educators who’d like to stop by and learn more about Fellows’ ongoing activities.
Research Keynote Address:
Alex Filippenko
Professor of Astronomy
University of California, Berkeley
The measured distances of type Ia (white dwarf) supernovae as a function of redshift (z) have shown that the expansion of the Universe is currently accelerating, probably due to the presence of dark energy (X) having a negative pressure, such as Einstein’s cosmological constant (Lambda). Combining all of the data with existing results from large-scale structure surveys, we find a best fit for Omega_M and Omega_X of 0.28 and 0.72 (respectively), in excellent agreement with the values derived independently from WMAP measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation. A number of possible systematic effects (dust, supernova evolution) do not seem to eliminate the need for Omega_X > 0. Moreover, analyses of very distant supernovae (z = 1.0-1.7) reveal an early epoch of deceleration, followed by acceleration. Several groups have recently measured hundreds of supernovae with z = 0.2-0.8, to determine the equation-of-state parameter of the dark energy, w_X = P/(rho c^2). The best-fit value is w_X = -1, and its first derivative (dw/dz) is consistent with zero, suggesting that the dark energy may indeed be the cosmological constant or something nearly indistinguishable from it. Any viable theory of quantum gravity will need to be consistent with this result.
Saturday, Jan 2
1:00 PM Welcoming Remarks – Dana Lehr (NSF)
1:20 PM Stephen Muchovej – “The C-Band All-Sky Survey”
1:35 PM Catherine Espaillat – “Clearing the Planet-forming Regions of Dusty Disks”
1:50 PM Karín Menéndez-Delmestre – “Massive Starburst Galaxies at High redshift: the submm galaxy population”
2:05 PM Marshall Perrin – “The puzzling structure of AB Aurigae’s protoplanetary disk; and active learning techniques in classes beyond Astro 101”
2:20 PM Coffee Break
2:40 PM Discussion Panel 1 – “Making the Transition from Advisee to Advisor”
Kelle Cruz (AAPF ’04, Caltech)
Jessica Rosenberg (AAPF ’03, George Mason)
John Feldmeier (AAPF ’03, Youngstown State)
Chris Groppi (AAPF ’06, Arizona State U)
3:45 PM Bethany Cobb – “GRB 090313 and an Astronomy/Dance Collaboration”
4:00 PM Stella Offner – “Stellar Kinematics of Young Clusters”
4:15 PM Ilya Mandel – “Prospects in Gravitational-Wave Astronomy”
4:30 PM Benjamin Brown – “Simulations of Magnetism in Rapidly Rotating Stars”
4:45 PM Education & Public Outreach Keynote Address – Sidney Wolff (NOAO)
“Astronomy Education Research: Why It Matters and How It Helps”
5:45 PM (end of 1st day)
7:00 PM Banquet Dinner (@ Firefly)
Sunday, Jan 3
9:00 AM “Alternative Careers with an Astronomy PhD” – Andy Clegg (NSF)
9:40 AM Makenzie Lystrup – “Infrared planetary aurorae: a probe for magnetospheric/ionospheric physics”
9:55 AM Eric Hallman – “Clusters of Galaxies as Precision Cosmological Probes”
10:10 AM John Wisniewski – “Exoplanets and Disks and E/PO (oh my!)”
10:25 AM Coffee Break
10:45 AM Discussion Panel 2 – “Evaluating the Impact and Success of Outreach Efforts”
Stephen Pompea (NOAO)
Susana Deustua (STScI/IYA)
Jay Pasachoff (Williams College)
Phil Plait (author, bad astronomy blog)
11:50 AM (break for lunch)
2:00 PM Research Keynote Address – Alex Filippenko (UC Berkeley)
“Evidence from Type Ia Supernovae for an Accelerating Universe and Dark Energy”
3:00 PM Nicholas Sterling – “S-Process Enrichments in Planetary Nebulae”
3:15 PM Rachel Kuzio de Naray – “Testing Dark Matter Theories with LSB Galaxies”
3:30 PM Coffee Break
3:50 PM Sarah Hansen – “Intra-cluster Light in SDSS Galaxy Clusters”
4:05 PM Jeremiah Murphy – “A Model for Gravitational Wave Emission from Core-Collapse Supernova Explosions”
4:20 PM Michael McElwain – “Exoplanetary Science with High Contrast Imaging”
4:35 PM Discussion Panel 3 – “The Future of Ground-based and Space-based Observatories”
Jonathan Gardner (GSFC/JWST)
Andrew Baker (Rutgers/ALMA)
David Silva (NOAO)
5:40 PM Closing Remarks – Craig Foltz (NSF)
6:00 PM (end of meeting)