AAS Solar Physics Division: Education and Outreach

Information for:

The Solar Physics Division (SPD) has formally approved the creation of a standing Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) committee. An exploratory committee composed of various SPD members, was established and tasked with writing a proposal for such a committee including a charter and mission statement to help guide the founding E/PO committee members in the implementation of an SPD E/PO program.

Downlaod the report (PDF 60K)

Students

Resources for students include:

SPD Studentship Awards (see below)
SPD Summer Schools (see below)
Some insightful Advice to the Young Astronomer, by Ed Nather
Job and career resources, on the SPD links page

SPD Studentship Awards

The Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society is pleased to announce this program, which for the last two decades has presented a number of awards annually to outstanding undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in pursuing a career in solar physics. The purpose of these awards is to acquaint promising students with the field of solar physics by allowing these students to participate actively in the annual SPD meeting (or joint summer meeting with the AGU/AAS, as appropriate).

Depending upon financial need, the awards comprise a fraction of travel and room and board for the duration of the meeting. Awardees are recognized at the meeting.

Applications for the award are solicited in early spring, approximately one month before the abstract deadline for the meeting. They should be submitted to the Chair of the Studentship Awards Committee: Dr. A. Gordon Emslie, Associate Vice President for Research and Dean, Graduate College, Oklahoma State University, 202 Whitehurst, Stillwater, OK 74078. An application consists of the following:

Student Level	Requirements
Undergraduate and First Year Graduate Students	(1) Name, university, address, major, education level, science grade point (2) Summary of interests and future plans in solar physics. (3) One letter of endorsement from a supervising scientist, that includes an evaluation of the student's financial requirements for attending the meeting and the extent to which partial support from other sources is available. (Letters or e-mails may be sent separately to the above address.)
Advanced Graduate Students	In addition to the above three requirements: (4) Enclose an abstract and deliver either an oral or poster presentation at the meeting. Abstracts should also be sent through the usual channels.

Student Level

Requirements

Undergraduate and First Year Graduate Students

(1) Name, university, address, major, education level, science grade point

(2) Summary of interests and future plans in solar physics.

(3) One letter of endorsement from a supervising scientist, that includes an evaluation of the student's financial requirements for attending the meeting and the extent to which partial support from other sources is available.
(Letters or e-mails may be sent separately to the above address.)

Advanced Graduate Students

In addition to the above three requirements:

(4) Enclose an abstract and deliver either an oral or poster presentation at the meeting. Abstracts should also be sent through the usual channels.

Awardees will be notified sufficiently in advance of the abstract deadline for the meeting for them to make the necessary plans to attend. Awards are issued by the Treasurer of the Division.

Student awardees are expected to attend the entire SPD meeting and to be present at a brief awards ceremony to be held during the meeting.

SPD Summer Schools

The SPD has undertaken the organization of a series of summer schools to cover various aspects of solar physics.

The objective is to present solar physics to young professionals who might be considering a career in solar physics by giving them a crash course in some area of specialization, with the idea being to have a three or four year rotation between different areas. The target audience is incoming graduate students, but participation would probably be broadened to grad students at any level, and "fresh outs" within a few years of a PhD.

The 2008 summer school will be held at the University of Hawai'i's Insititute for Astronomy's Advanced Technology Research Center on Maui, June 2 - 6.

The 2007 summer school, an introduction to Solar Physics, was hosted by the University of Arizona and the National Solar Observatory, and held at NSO Sac Peak.

The 2006 summer school, on High Energy Solar Physics, was held at the University of New Hampshire at Durham.

The first summer school in the series took place in July 2005, and was focused on helioseismology. This event was hosted by HAO and ASP of NCAR, held at the Foothills Laboratories of NCAR in Boulder, Colorado.

Future summer schools will cover other fields of solar physics. All post-junior undergraduate students, graduate students, and post graduate early career scientists in physics, astronomy, and related fields are encouraged to apply. The SPD Summer Schools Steering Committee can be reached at schools@spd.aas.org. More details can be found in the 16 May 2005 edition of SolarNews (see also here).

Outreach

The American Geophysical Union has published a researcher's guide for dealing successfully with the news media, You and the Media (PDF format, 800 Kbyte).

Given the increased media attention on space weather in general and solar physics in particular, especially during times of solar maximum, many of us are speaking to the media, and could use the sage advice in this document.

Education

Other relevant web pages devoted to scientific outreach, public policy, and education issues include:

AAS pages on: Education
AGU pages on: Education
The APS Office of Public Affairs