This afternoon I flew to Washington D.C., where the National Science Foundation (NSF) Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellows Symposium is taking place today and tomorrow at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel. This precedes the January 2006 American Astrophysical Society (AAS) Meeting. The symposium itself is supposed to draw in about 20 fellows, as well as various people from the astrophysics community who show up early to the AAS meeting and – good to know if you’re interested and in the area – is free and open to the public.
I’m here because I’ve been invited to sit on a panel on Exploring Non-Traditional Outreach Methods. This should be pretty interesting, since it’s the first time I’ve been asked to take part in something like this, that is so far from my primary research area. Although I am involved in a wide variety of outreach efforts, including Saturday Morning Physics, Cafe Scientifique, public lectures, etc., the only thing that was explicitly mentioned when I was invited, was the blog!
So we’ll see. I’ll let you know how it goes, what gets asked, and how my answers are treated. As far as I know, I’m not required to do any preparation, so it’ll be a bit of a surprise to be on the panel, although I’ll get to attend a different one earlier in the day, so that should help.
I got here late afternoon and went out for dinner, where I ran into someone I knew and had dinner with, which was nice. I finished my early evening with a quick drink in the bar at my hotel and am now back in my room editing a paper (or rather avoiding editing the paper by writing this quick post).
I’m staying in D.C. until Monday afternoon, and spending Monday morning at the NSF having a meeting with my grant manager. I’ll post again either tomorrow evening or Monday, reporting on the panel.
January 7th, 2006 at 11:07 pm
Mark, try live blogging from the panel itself. See if they have a wireless connection. If anyone asks, explain that it is an important part of the blogging process/duty.
-cvj
January 8th, 2006 at 5:29 am
Mark, I hope you have a good answer ready for the one question which the others esteemed panelists are all sure to ask of you: how do you handle those pesky dissidents running mok on the net – and on your blog?
January 8th, 2006 at 11:32 am
Hi Mark,
A few quick suggestions on outreach efforts:
Arrange for Junior High and High School kids to visit scientists at work, at universities and research labs. Have the scientists talk to the kids, instead of just one person sheparding the kids around pointing out the people at work.
Have reporters from publications aimed at teens come interview you guys and prepare even a small article for their mag.
Persuade the scientists to interact more with their kids’ friends, kids in the neighborhood, kids of friends and relatives, etc. to talk about one’s field (and other stuff as well). Hopefully this will motivate the youngsters’ curiosity about science and to convey that one can be in this field of work w/o necessarily being deranged, cloistered and off-the charts smart.
January 8th, 2006 at 11:33 am
Hey, wait a minute. I’m on that panel too! See you there.
January 8th, 2006 at 2:25 pm
Phil and Mark, while you are sitting on the panel live-blogging away at your laptops, please be sure to emphasize that bloggers are really cool.
January 8th, 2006 at 2:34 pm
Oh, you know some cool ones?
I met Chris Mooney and Wonkette today, so this has been quite the blogerrific day.
January 8th, 2006 at 3:23 pm
You met Wonkette!? That’s officially cool. (I’ve come very close to meeting Chris, but haven’t quite succeeded.)
January 8th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
Sitting in the NSF symposium right now listening to an excellent panel. No wireless in here and neither Mark nor Phil have their laptops up with them, but I’m sure they’ll report in tonight.
January 9th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
Blogs and Outreach at the NSF Astrophysics Fellows Symposium
I’m now back in Syracuse after an enjoyable couple of days in D.C. As I advertised last time, on Saturday afternoon I sat on a panel on Exploring Non-Traditional Outreach Methods at the National Science Foundation (NSF) Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fel…
January 9th, 2006 at 10:39 pm
[...] I’m now back in Syracuse after an enjoyable couple of days in D.C. As I advertised last time, on Saturday afternoon I sat on a panel on Exploring Non-Traditional Outreach Methods at the National Science Foundation (NSF) Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellows Symposium. The whole day turned out to be a lot of fun. Part of the qualifications for NSF postdoctoral fellows is that they be top-flight young researchers, who also have an extremely active interest in teaching and outreach. This combination made for a very lively day of talks and panels. It’s refreshing to hear the same people switch from giving relatively technical discussions of their research on, for example, searching for quiet X-ray binaries, to discussing their involvement in setting up an entire campus astronomy museum (in this example, Ginny McSwain, from Yale). [...]