Newsletter 13-24 Published on Division for Planetary Sciences (https://dps.aas.org) Newsletter 13-24 Issue 13-24, September 27, 2013 +-----------------------------CONTENTS--------------------------------+ 1) MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR 2) 45TH MEETING OF THE DIVISION FOR PLANETARY SCIENCES: REMINDERS 3) JOBS/POSITIONS OPPORTUNITIES 4) UPCOMING MEETINGS +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ 1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1 MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR Thank you for the opportunity to serve you as DPS Chair during the last year. It was challenging but also very rewarding and instructive and I urge others to take the opportunity to serve as officers or committee members. I am very happy to welcome the next DPS Chair, Heidi Hammel, and the next Vice-Chair, Bonnie Buratti, as well as the new committee members. A big thank you to those departing, including former Chair Dan Britt. It was wonderful to work with you. Planetary science is having tough fiscal times, but we have made some progress. Thank you for your letters and visits to Congress, our message was certainly heard. I also want to thank the efforts of AGU, GSA, and The Planetary Society. Coordinating our efforts makes us stronger and The Planetary Society brings in many thousands of members of the public who are supportive of our science and exploration. As of now, thanks in part to your efforts over the past year, both the House and the Senate are working towards bills that will provide NASA’s Planetary Science Division with some $100 million more than requested by the Administration for FY14. While this level of budget restoration is deeply appreciated and will help alleviate the damage that the Administration’s budget cuts would inflict, it is insufficient to fully achieve the balanced goals of the Vision and Voyages Decadal Survey. However, we believe that our supporters in Congress intend to restore the planetary budget back to its historic $1.5B in the following year. Our continued united support for the Vision and Voyages Decadal Survey, and for budget restoration to the $1.5B annual level, will help Congress greatly in achieving this outcome. You may have noticed that DPS has not urged you to write letters recently. This is because we are working closely with the AAS to target our campaigns at the most appropriate times. I am grateful to Joel Parriott from the AAS (who formerly worked at OMB) and Makenzie Lystrup (our new FRS chair and a former staffer) for their guidance and insight into how the US government works. Thank you to all those of you who visited Congress, particularly the members of the FRS committee and of the young planetary scientists informal group, many of whom came to DC at their own expense and using their vacation time. Your dedication is inspiring. Keep an eye on messages in the DPS newsletter - when we next ask you to write letters, it means the time is right. Best of luck to Heidi and Bonnie, and see you at the DPS meeting in Denver. Rosaly Lopes 2---------2---------2---------2---------2---------2---------2---------2---------2---------2 45TH MEETING OF THE DIVISION FOR PLANETARY SCIENCES: REMINDERS The DPS is a Division of the Page 1 of 11 American Astronomical Society. Send questions, comments, updates to [email protected] Send graduate school and REU program updates to [email protected] Newsletter 13-24 Published on Division for Planetary Sciences (https://dps.aas.org) Denver, CO, 6-11 October 2013 - - a fantastic program of planetary science! http://aas.org/meetings/45th-meeting-division-planetary-sciences [1] From the LOC: Colorado is getting back to it's usually dry and sunny weather. Come enjoy the science and the scenery! More reminders hereafter 1. Registration (never too late !) You can still register for the meeting and you can also register at the meeting. Due to the difficult situation some NASA colleagues are facing this year, we will not reinforce the prior registration policy. Note then that you will be able to also register on site ! Volunteers that sign up to work a minimum of 16 hours receive complimentary meeting registration, volunteer t-shirts, and access to the Exhibit Hall and all the sessions. We also provide complimentary lunch and parking on the days you work 4 or more hours. If interested, please contact Kathy Cox at [email protected] [2] or 202-328-2010 x117. 2. Local Travel Information: Logistics for getting around Denver - lots of good local transport. http://aas.org/dps-45th-meeting/45th-dps-meeting-hotel-reservations-and-... [3] 3. Preparing your DPS oral presentation The demand for oral talks at DPS this year was so high that only 70% of requests could be granted. If you were lucky enough to get an oral talk, here are some tips from the organizing committee for how to make the most of your good fortune: * 1 slide per minute is a good pace for content-rich slides. Contributed talks should be about 7 minutes long (or about 12 minutes long for PhD talks). Do the math. * Focus on why you did the work and what you learned. You won't have time for extensive introductory material, or detailed descriptions of techniques. * Make sure there's a "take home" message on the final slide, and leave up your conclusions during questions so the audience can absorb them- don't replace them with a "Thank You" or "Any Questions?" slide. * Graphics: - Simplify! Show only the essential stuff on your graphics - Label your axes with text large enough to be legible from the back of the room. Don't label axes with symbols you defined a couple of slides back- spell out whenever possible. - Don't use bright green, yellow, or cyan, on a white background. You might be able to see them on your computer screen but they tend to disappear on a projected image. - Similarly, don't use blue on a black background There's more good advice from Emily Lakdawalla at http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2013/04040850-better-con... [4] See you soon! John Spencer, Andrew Steffl 4. Panel Discussion on the Future of Education & Public Outreach (E/PO) at the Denver DPS Meeting You're invited to attend a lunchtime panel discussion on "The Future of Education & Public Outreach" to be held during the Denver DPS meeting. Massive changes to E/PO have been proposed that impact the way that our work as planetary scientists makes its way to the classrooms and to the general public. The panel discussion will include a review of those plans, their current status, and a discussion on what lies ahead. Panelist include Jim Green, NASA/SMD; Heidi Hammel, incoming DPS chair; Maria Womack, NSF, and other members of the E/PO community to be confirmed. The event will take place on The DPS is a Division of the Page 2 of 11 American Astronomical Society. Send questions, comments, updates to [email protected] Send graduate school and REU program updates to [email protected] Newsletter 13-24 Published on Division for Planetary Sciences (https://dps.aas.org) Wednesday, 9 October from 12:30-1:30 in the Governors Square 15 meeting room in the Sheraton. The event will be recorded and made available online after the event for those unable to attend in person. -Nick Schneider, DPS Education & Public Outreach Officer ([email protected] [5]) 5. Banquet Come to Denver Museum of Nature & Science for the DPS Banquet on Wed. Oct. 9th Fun evening of good food, music (in planetarium, featuring surprise planetary musician) and a free roam of the Space Odyssey and Gems & Minerals (including spectacular gold from the Colorado hills). No speeches! Student Ticket: $60 Regular Ticket: $80 Please sign-up for the Banquet using the online registration form. If you have already registered for the meeting but would like to attend the Banquet, please call our Registrar Tracy Beale at 202-328-2010 ext. 106. 6. Student/Post-Doc Reception Sun. 6 Oct. 2013, 4:30-6:00pm. DPS meetings are great places for students to network among other scientists, to learn about how other scientists encounter scientific problems, and get new ideas. However, there are so many great presentations, talks, events, and information in a short time that the students rarely find time to network among other students and get advice close to their own level. This event will help students meet other students, in particular those who work on similar topics, to discuss their scientific views and general issues, and encourages the students to participate in brain storming conversations and joint projects. Since the post-docs were graduate students not so long ago, their advise and experience is valuable to graduate students, and for that reason this event will include post-docs as well. With these grounds, the goal of the student and post-doc reception is to prepare an icebreaker environment for students and post-docs to get familiar with each other on the first day of the meeting and use the rest of the meeting to enhance those connections and get involved with other activities. Contact Al Khayat <[email protected] [6]>. 7. Pro-Am Workshop Thurs. Oct. 10th at 6:00pm. DPS is experimenting with a professional-amateur workshop where professionals present what opportunities are out there for collaborations with NASA missions and amateurs show samples of their observations. Examples: observing Pluto during New Horizons flyby, observing Jupiter's clouds while Juno flies over the poles, taking images of comet ISON to find time-variability, light-curves of asteroids, follow-up on NEOs, searches for Moon impacts (perhaps related to LADEE), Mars observations during MAVEN, etc, etc, etc).