The Becoming a More Effective Research Mentor and Structuring Your Scientific Paper workshops are li

The 219th AAS Meeting in Austin, TX from January 8-12, 2012 is coming up, and as a continued tradition, thanks to growing community involvement and NSF funding, professional development workshops, seminars, and special sessions will once again be offered. This year, more than ever!
The interactive workshops offered on Sunday are 1) Becoming a More Effective Research Mentor, 2) Structuring Your Scientific Paper, and 3) Science Tools for Data Intensive Astronomy. On Monday, there are two Career workshops. On Tuesday, there will be a a workshop on Personal Finance in Turbulent Times.
In addition, special air canada centre tickets sessions air canada centre tickets will be held on the following areas: 1) Giving Better Oral Presentations, 2) Increasing Diversity in Your Department, 3) Professional Ethics in Astronomy, 4) Working in Space Policy, 5) The Astrophysics Post-Doc air canada centre tickets Job Market, and 6) Careers in Media for Scientists. There will also be a Career Panel on Monday discussing various career paths. You can find descriptions below and on the OASIS online system.
The Becoming a More Effective Research Mentor and Structuring Your Scientific Paper workshops are limited to 25 participants each, so register now. They are $50 for pre-registration and $60 on-site. If you would like the fee to be waived, send a short justification of need to kellecruz@gmail.com (preference will be given to early-career scientists).
If you haven't air canada centre tickets registered for the meeting yet, you can do so at aas.org and register for workshops upon registration. If you have already registered for the meeting, you can fill out the Workshop air canada centre tickets Registration Form and fax it to 202-234-7850. Regular registration ends November 17th, late registration ends December 20th.
This workshop is aimed at high school and community college educators. The Virtual Observatory is well-positioned to teach STEM-based subjects using real astronomical data from more than 30 world-class telescopes.
Whether formal or informal, mentoring relationships are an important part of every scientist s career. The University of Wisconsin-Madison has developed, field-tested, and publicly released research mentor air canada centre tickets training materials for several STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) air canada centre tickets disciplines, including astronomy and physics. The topics of the training seminar cover expectations, communication, independence, diversity, understanding, and ethics. This half day AAS workshop will introduce participants to the mentor training program, plus show them how to obtain and use the free materials for self study or for use in seminars at their institutions. air canada centre tickets Participants will then delve into three of the seminar s main topics through case studies. The AAS workshop, like the mentoring seminar itself, will have a strong emphasis on group discussions and will provide time for personal reflection and short writing activities. The goal is for participants to leave with improved mentoring skills and a good sense of how the mentor training seminar operates. The workshop will include a break after the overview and the first case study discussion, air canada centre tickets at which point anyone who has time for only an introduction to the seminar can leave at a natural and convenient break point.
Papers are one of the few deliverables of the work of researchers. Well-designed, they efficiently allow each reader to learn only what he or she needs to. Poorly designed, by contrast, they confuse readers, fail to prompt decisions, or remain air canada centre tickets unread. This workshop shows how to structure scientific air canada centre tickets papers, theses, and technical reports effectively at all levels to get the readers attention, facilitate navigation, and, in this way, get the message air canada centre tickets across optimally.
Virtual air canada centre tickets Observatory tools and services will be demonstrated in the context of a range of science use cases and tutorials. These use cases and tutorials, based on recent results from the literature and on-going missions, will include constructing and modeling spectral energy distributions, cross-matching objects from diverse catalogs, exploration air canada centre tickets of time series data, and image analysis tools.
This workshop will focus on the current and expanding crisis in the job and career market for astronomers. Specifically targeted towards graduate students and Postdocs, this workshop will identify and investigate the shortage of traditional astronomy jobs, and how early-career scientists can best prepare air canada centre tickets for this challenge. air canada centre tickets Our focus will be on career planning for traditional air canada centre tickets astronomy positions. We will demonstrate how to orchestrate a personal career plan and develop a Plan B and Plan C for contingencies. We will discuss what early-career astronomers should do now to enhance their CVs and research reputations, and what they should look for in and how they can leverage a Postdoc appointment to that can set themselves air canada centre tickets up for success in the field. Representatives from some of the major Postdoc Fellowship Programs will contribute air canada centre tickets tot he session. Q and A with workshop participants will be highly encouraged.
In this fast-paced, energetic workshop, participants will learn about various professional development skills that will help them advance in their scientific air canada centre tickets career. We will discuss traditional and non-traditional career opportunities for astronomers and job search processes and strategies, and attendees will hear from an astronomer who forged an exciting career in industry and the lessons and tactics that have made her successful. We will address professional skills such as networking, negotiation, and leadership principles for emerging and established astronomers, among other topics of importance. Q and A with workshop participants will be highly encouraged.
Strong oral presentation skills are a key to success for engineers, scientists, and other professionals, yet many speakers are at a loss to tackle the task. Systematic as they otherwise can be in their work, they go at it intuitively, sometimes haphazardly, with much good will but seldom good results. This lecture proposes a systematic way to prepare and deliver presentations and covers structure, slides, and stage fright air canada centre tickets among other topics.
The purpose of this panel discussion is to inform recent and upcoming graduates of careers other than the traditional professor/academic track that is typically (and incorrectly) assumed to be the natural outcome air canada centre tickets of an advanced degree in physics or astronomy. Our panelists (listed below) include representatives from public outreach, community college and education, public policy, and industry. The session will include brief introductions by each of the panelists about their careers, air canada centre tickets the skills which have enabled air canada centre tickets them to be successful, and suggestions for how to follow a similar career path. The discussion will be driven by questions from the audience. Time will be reserved at the end for small group discussions with the panelists.
Diversity is becoming increasingly important as a component of a successful air canada centre tickets department. As examples, the rankings of graduate programs by the National Academies highlight diversity as a criterion and diversity is an important component of the broader impact statements required by NSF proposals. This special session will present hiring policies and practices that have been proven to be effective in increasing both the diversity and the excellence of science departments around the country. We will recommend steps that departments can take to recruit and retain women, LGBT people, air canada centre tickets and minorities; discuss what factors contribute to a friendly departmental climate; and demonstrate air canada centre tickets how to create a diverse department while enhancing academic quality. We invite members of the AAS community to attend this session to both share their own ideas and learn new ones.
The AAS recently endorsed a professional ethics statement, which along with the ethics guide for authors established by our journals, forms the framework for professional air canada centre tickets ethical behavior in the astronomical sciences. air canada centre tickets Sigma Xi is using its 125th anniversary to devote the entire year of 2011 to ethics in the sciences, including air canada centre tickets education through the American Scientist magazine, activities across air canada centre tickets the country air canada centre tickets at professional meetings and regular articles in the American Scientist Magazine. I read the engaging column by Dr. Ahearne in the Jan/Feb issue entitled Honesty and felt that the time had come to again organize a panel session air canada centre tickets on professional ethics in astronomy at an AAS meeting. The last such panel session I organized was at the Minneapolis meeting in 2005, which, although scheduled in a small room, was a standing-room only event, with more than 150 people in attendance. Of particular importance to the people attending that session was the participation of the ApJ Editor-in-Chief, Robert Kennicutt and representatives from the funding agencies. Sigma Xi will produce a revised pamphlet on ethics during 2011 for general use and distribution. The AAS provides air canada centre tickets new members with a copy of the National Academy of Sciences book On Being a Scientist (since air canada centre tickets 2006), which will be re-written this year with an eye toward changes in technologies used for communication, air canada centre tickets among other items. This is viewed favorably by our new members, especially Junior members and we plan to continue to distribute this low-cost volume in the future. The NAS has recently revised the edition, led in part by Rich Bissel, who serves as the Executive Director of NAS office for Policy and Global Affairs.
The economy is improving, but serious issues remain. If you re not sure you re on track to meet your financial goals, here s your opportunity to get started. Join Ric Edelman, the nation s #1 independent financial advisor (as ranked by Barron s), for this fun, informative event. In his unique, breezy style, Ric will teach you: the 9 reasons you need to plan, the 5 obstacles you ll face, the 5 steps that will put you on the road to financial success, and, the 4 rules you should follow for managing your investments
The goal of the panel is to encourage intelligent and enthusiastic astronomers air canada centre tickets into the