Contact
Dr. Rick Fienberg
Press Officer
202-328-2010 x116
Email
Relations with the news media on science topics are handled by the AAS Press Officer. The Press Officer responds to media inquiries by providing referrals to suitable experts, suggesting story topics and illustration sources, and recommending scientists who are effective communicators on radio and television.
The Press Officer is responsible for all media arrangements at meetings and all AAS public-information activities concerning the science of astronomy, as distinct from issues of public policy. AAS Divisions, including DPS, HEAD, and SPD, also appoint press officers who facilitate media coverage of their respective Divisional meetings and awards.
More than 30,000 celestial images that were all but lost to science are about to find their way back into researchers’ hands thanks to the efforts of thousands of citizen scientists participating in the Astronomy Rewind project on the Zooniverse website.
In partnership with several other professional associations of physical scientists, the American Astronomical Society has received funding from the National Science Foundation to strengthen US science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by broadening the participation of underrepresented groups.
The AAS is thrilled to announce that AAS Press Officer Dr. Richard Tresch Fienberg is being honored with NASA’s Exceptional Public Achievement Medal “for exceptional service to the nation in [his] tireless efforts for the public’s safe solar viewing of the 2017 total solar eclipse.”
The AAS and the American Geophysical Union have received a grant from The Kavli Foundation to advance exoplanet science through a joint steering committee, special sessions at both societies’ annual meetings, and topical conferences and workshops.
At the 233rd AAS meeting in Seattle, Washington, on 7 January 2019, the Kavli Foundation Plenary Lecture will be given by Greg Laughlin (Yale University), who will explore the implications of the discovery of 'Oumuamua, the first confirmed interstellar asteroid.
Elena Aprile (Columbia University) is being honored with the 2019 Berkeley prize for her leadership of the XENON project and its groundbreaking search for the weakly interacting massive particles (“WIMPs”) thought to make up dark matter.
Twenty-one astronomers, solar physicists, and planetary scientists from the AAS took to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, 14 March 2018, to advocate for robust federal investment in the astronomical sciences
At the 232nd AAS meeting in Denver, Colorado, on 4 June 2018, the Kavli Foundation Plenary Lecture will be given by Debra Fischer (Yale University), a leading expert on detecting and characterizing exoplanets.
AAS President-Elect Megan Donahue and Executive Officer Kevin Marvel are gravely concerned about the administration’s proposed cuts to NASA’s astrophysics budget and the abrupt cancellation of the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope.
At its 231st semiannual meeting near Washington, DC, the American Astronomical Society named the recipients of its 2018 prizes for outstanding achievements in scientific research, instrument development, and writing.