13th Annual Symposium of the NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellows

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

This award will provide support for attendees and invited speakers for the thirteenth annual symposium of the NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowships (AAPF) program, to be held in conjunction with the winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in January, 2015, in Seattle, Washington. The purpose of the AAPF program is to integrate research and educational activities at the postdoctoral level to better prepare fellows for a scientific career. The annual symposium provides a venue for fellows to discuss their research and teaching or outreach projects while increasing their exposure within the astronomy and astrophysics community. The symposium represents a key component of the AAPF program and acts as a mechanism to facilitate knowledge transfer from experiences that the fellows have obtained in the course of their activities to a broad audience. As with previous symposia in this series, the AAPF symposium for 2015 will promote interactions among astronomers with very different interests and backgrounds. By creating a forum in which discussions can occur across the standard boundaries defined by sub-discipline, there is great opportunity for new insights and the ability to develop new interdisciplinary collaborations. The symposium will also provide a venue for discussing other issues that are important to early career astronomers. In addition, the symposium will (1) provide a forum for discussing the combination of research and teaching, (2) facilitate collaborations between AAPF fellows on both research and education, and (3) provide exposure for the fellows and the fellowship program within the astronomical community.