AstroWright Group Science at #AAS227

AAS 227

It’s that time of year again! I’m not there at AAS myself, but here is some of the science I’m involved in to some degree.  Put them on your schedule with the AAS meeting app!

Tuesday oral, 10am, Sun D:

fabienne105.02 PSU Hubble Fellow Fabienne Bastien on using “flicker” to derive stellar gravities (and, so, masses) from Kepler and K2 light curves.  10am in Sun D.

Screen Shot 2013-11-06 at 9.38.47 AM.pngimage_normal.png 105.03 Right after Fabienne(!), NSF Graduate Fellow Jason Curtis (@jcwaalaaa) talks on what’s up with Ruprecht 147, the closest intermediate-age open cluster (a crucial test for gyrochronology!).  10am in Sun D. Stellar astronomers: Jason is on the job market this year.

Tuesday poster:

mccrady137.14 MINERVAn Nate McCrady (@natemccrady) presents all the latest science with Project MINERVA in the poster session.

Brendan138.26 Atmospheric escape and star-planet interactions in hot Jupiters: Brendan Miller (@brendanpmiller) presents new Chandra observations of HD 97658 and HAT-P-11 in the poster session.

Rachel Worth 138.30  PSU grad student Rachel Worth (@RachelJWorth) has results on Proxima Centauri’s Influence on Planet Formation in Alpha Centauri.  While you’re at her poster, ask her about lithopanspermia.  Dynamicists and astrobiologists: Rachel is on the job market this year.

Wednesday oral 2pm Sun D:

HgmRH_IK 220.03D Sharon (Xuesong) Wang (@sharonxuesong) gives her dissertation talk on solving the precise radial velocity issues at Keck and HET observatories. If you ever wondered about the nitty gritty of how precise iodine RVs are made, this is the talk for you.  Observational exoplaneteers: Sharon is on the job market this year!

Wednesday posters:

Julia Kregenow 245.08 Penn State teaches more undergraduates astronomy than any college in the country, including lots of Web courses.  How much do the students in those Web courses learn?  More than you think (as long as it’s done right.)  Julia Kregenow on how to keep learning gains high in Web instruction (spoiler alert: MOOCs aren’t doing it right).

Kim Cartier 250.03 A meta-poster! Kimberly Cartier (@AstroKimCartier) gives important advice on good poster design — in poster form!

Thursday oral 10am Osceola B:

Kim Cartier 306.06 Kimberly Cartier again!  This time talking about near-IR spectroscopy of WASP-103b at secondary eclipse, work she is doing with Ming Zhao and Thomas Beatty.

Friday oral 2pm Osceola 4:

Sam Halverson427.01D Finally, fans of fiber optic radial velocity work should not miss Sam Halverson’s dissertation talk on photonic systems for high precision radial velocity measurements, in particular his novel use of ball scramblers for very high scrambling gains at high efficiency.  Instrumentalists: Sam is on the job market this year!

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