AAS Newsletter March/April 2012, Issue 163 - Published for the Members of the American Astronomical Society Table of Contents 14 Alaska Beckons: AAS to Meet in Anchorage 16 Highlights from the Austin Meeting 2 President’s Column 22 An Introduction to the AAS Working Group on LGBTIQ Equality 4 Letter to the Editor 23 Committee on Employment 5 Journals Update 24 Committee on the Status of Women 6 From the Executive Office in Astronomy 6 AIP/AAS Interaction 25 News from the Astronomical Society of the 8 Secretary’s Corner Pacific (ASP) 8 Council Actions 26 News from NSF Division of Astronomical 9 An Update on the James Webb Space Telescope Sciences (AST) 10 2012 Prize Winners 27 Announcements 13 The Pipeline: A Model for Creating Innovators 28 Honored Elsewhere through Freshman Research at The University of 29 Washington News Texas at Austin 30 Calendar of Events A A S American Astronomical Society AAS Officers President's Column Debra M. Elmegreen, President David J. Helfand, President-Elect Debra Meloy Elmegreen, [email protected] Lee Anne Willson, Vice-President Nicholas B. Suntzeff, Vice-President Edward B. Churchwell, Vice-President Hervey (Peter) Stockman, Treasurer G. Fritz Benedict, Secretary Richard F. Green, Publications Board Chair Deep in the heart Texas, the stars (and Timothy F. Slater, Education Officer moon and Jupiter) were indeed bright th Councilors as we enjoyed our 219 meeting in Bruce Balick Austin. The “superbowl of astronomy” Richard G. French Eileen D. Friel this year had over 2900 registrants, Edward F. Guinan including over 600 junior members. Patricia Knezek James D. Lowenthal The meeting was a memorable one, Robert Mathieu with terrific speakers and great sessions Angela Speck Jennifer Wiseman and workshops. Heineman prizewinner Bob Kirshner, Kavli lecturer Lyman Executive Office Staff Page, and Cannon prizewinner Rachel Kevin B. Marvel, Executive Officer Tracy Beale, Membership Services Mandelbaum gave lively and exciting Coordinator talks on their cosmology work. Pierce Chris Biemesderfer, Director of Publishing Kelly E. Clark, Chief Financial Officer prizewinner Gaspar Bakos impressed Kim Earle, Director of Meeting Services the audience with his live telescope Richard Tresch Fienberg, Press Officer and Education & Outreach Coordinator operation while describing exoplanet discoveries, and Berkeley prizewinner Lisa Idem, Meetings Manager Linda Tacconi closed out the meeting with beautiful gas measurements Scott Idem, Systems & Network Director Bethany Johns, John Bahcall Public Policy in redshift 2 galaxies. There were poignant NASA manned space mission Fellow reflections by Steve Hawley, among many other wonderful plenary talks. Judith M. Johnson, Director of Communications There were fun evening events too, both official and unofficial, with “Saving Debbie Kovalsky, Exhibits & Sponsorship Hubble” and “The City Dark” and “Armageddon” movie showings, and a Coordinator Jerry Lin, IT Support Assistant & Web very lively Wednesday night dance party featuring Brown Dwarfs as the Applications Developer signature cocktail. Many thanks to Kevin Marvel and the AAS staff for their Mary Moyo, Meetings Registrar Faye C. Peterson, Director of Membership meeting planning efforts, and Lee Anne Willson and the science planning Services team for lining up such a great program. Deyonna Roberts, Accounting Intern Tracy Rowe, Executive Assistant Crystal M. Tinch, Communications Manager We were pleased to have as our first meeting “media interns” several members of the Astrobites community who shadowed Press Officer AAS Newsletter Rick Fienberg and posted entertaining blogs about the meeting. This opportunity provided them an inside glimpse of a career in science media, Judith M. Johnson, Editor Crystal M. Tinch, Associate Editor which was also the topic of a panel discussion. Other career-building Jeff Linsky, U. Colorado, Associate Editor, sessions and workshops included discussions about careers in science policy, Letters effective mentoring, teaching diverse audiences, structuring scientific The AAS Newsletter (ISSN 8750-9350) papers, building resumes, citizen science, and astronomers teaching climate is published bi-monthly by the American Astronomical Society, 2000 Florida Avenue, change. Providing these kinds of training and awareness of opportunities NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20009-1231; to our members is part of our core strategic effort, and I thank the many Tel: 202-328-2010, Fax: 202-234-2560, [email protected]; www.aas.org. committees and dedicated individuals who organized these and other informative events at the meeting. Items of general interest to be considered for publication in the AAS Newsletter should be sent to [email protected]. Appropriate pictures We were excited to announce in Austin a brand new Division of the are welcome. For information about deadlines and submitting articles, see American Astronomical Society, the Laboratory Astrophysics Division, http://aas.org/publications/newsletter.php. which will be officially recognized at the Anchorage meeting. This is the Items submitted to the AAS Newsletter are not first new Division in over 30 years; Divisions were first started in the 1970’s automatically included in the AAS Electronic Announcements or vice versa. Submit for particular subgroups who felt that a focused effort was needed to help electronic announcement items to their field. Laboratory Astrophysics started as a Working Group five years [email protected]. ago, and their efforts culminated in approval of the new Division and By- Front Cover Laws during the weekend Council meeting prior to the general meeting. NGC 1376, Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), Acknowledgment:2 American Astronomical R. Thompson Society (University http://aas.org of Arizona) President's Column continued The charter and charge of the new Working Group on learn more about each of these, check out their webpages LGBTIQ, officially known as WGLE, was approved in on http://aas.org/comms. Austin. Several WGLE members appeared onstage at the meeting’s prize presentation ceremony, during which In Austin, we devoted our strategic Council meeting to Charles Francis of the Frank Kameny Papers project ideas centered on some core goals of the AAS: improving accepted a certificate of appreciation to Dr. Kameny diversity, addressing education, considering employment in honor of his efforts on behalf of the homosexual and postdocs, and discussing astropolitics. We reviewed community. It was a moving event that led to a standing metrics that we are beginning to accumulate in order to ovation from much of the audience. assess the effectiveness of our various activities. We had a guest speaker, Associate Dean Sarah Simmons from UT It was a pleasure to award AAS prizes to Dave Leckrone, Austin, who described the university’s Freshman Research Grace Deming, Edward Cheng, and Hale Bradt, and to Initiative as a broad program to engage students in officially announce AAS honorary membership to Yasuo scientific research as part of the curriculum as soon as they Tanaka. This was the first daytime prize ceremony, which enter college. Her statistics on the retention of students was a nice way to recognize our awardees in front of a in science, and the improved diversity in their science broad audience. You will recall that the prize ceremony programs, bode well for other similar programs by AAS used to occur during the closing banquet, which has members. She has a brief write-up of the effort elsewhere morphed into a free closing reception for all (with fine in this newsletter. Sharing results of such initiatives helps barbecue in Austin!). We first tried out a closing reception provide those of us in departments with some ways to in Boston after getting negative feedback about closing improve our effectiveness in training and educating banquets, so we do pay attention to our members’ input students. and keep trying to improve the meeting experience. The closing reception in Anchorage promises to have a fun The political aspects of astronomy of course involve twist to it, so plan to come and check it out. year-round efforts by Kevin Marvel and Bahcall Fellow Bethany Johns, along with our Committee on Astronomy Many members do not realize that the AAS has year- and Public Policy chaired by Jack Burns, and Council and round business, including work that transcends the winter the Executive Committee. Bethany’s gearing up now for and summer meetings. Executive Officer Kevin Marvel Congressional Visits Day participation by about two dozen and his amazing staff of 18 people are distributed across members in April, along with the new Communicating Membership, Meetings, Communications, Journals, with Washington initiative that will bring a couple of Finance, Information Technology, Press, Education, and astronomers to Capitol Hill each week. At the Austin Public Policy. There is also the Secretary’s office, in meeting Representative Lamar Smith of Texas made a addition to the editorial boards and staff for Astrophysical guest appearance, speaking of his commitment to science Journal, Letters, and Supplements, Astronomical Journal, and his interest in astronomy. AIP executive director Fred and Astronomy Education Research. The AAS staff works Dylla talked about communicating the importance of to help Council achieve its strategic goals and implement science research, and Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg short-term and long-term initiatives. Council holds a gave a public talk on big science and its difficulties in this