13 December 2024

Contacts:

Susanna Kohler
AAS Press Officer
+1 202-328-2010 x127

Kerry Hensley
AAS Deputy Press Officer
+1 202-328-2010 x138

Media Invited to 245th AAS Meeting in National Harbor, Maryland, in January

More than 3,000 astronomers and affiliates will be gathering in National Harbor, Maryland, this January for the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). From 12 to 16 January 2025, astronomers, students, educators, and journalists will come together at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center (201 Waterfront St, National Harbor, MD 20745) for a full schedule of scientific presentations, community-building workshops, town halls, career sessions, and more. Social media hashtag: #aas245. 

The AAS offers complimentary in-person press registration to bona fide working journalists and public-information officers (PIOs), as explained below.

AAS 245 Meeting Links

• Home Page
• Travel & Lodging Information (deadline for hotel reservations at the discounted AAS group rate: 5 January 2025 or whenever sold out)
• Press Information

Press Registration

The AAS offers complimentary press registration to bona fide working journalists and PIOs who meet the eligibility criteria, as described on the AAS press website.

There will be two options available to press registrants at AAS 245:

1. In-Person Press – Full Meeting Registration
   This option provides admittance to all in-person meeting events, sessions, and spaces, and it includes access to all virtual content. We ask that you only select the full registration if you do intend to go to National Harbor, so that we can obtain an approximate on-site head count in advance.
2. Virtual Press Registration
   This option provides online access to limited meeting content, which will include press conferences, live-streamed plenary talks, the NASA and NSF town halls, and a virtual-only oral session; the iPoster gallery; and the AAS 245 Slack workspace. Content excluded: in-person receptions, workshops, town halls (except for NASA and NSF), and all oral sessions (except for the virtual-only oral session).

To request press registration, first check our eligibility criteria, then contact the AAS Press Office with your name and media affiliation (or “freelance” if applicable); please specify "AAS 245 IN-PERSON press registration" or "AAS 245 VIRTUAL press registration" in the subject line. If your eligibility is confirmed, you'll receive a special promotional code that you can use to register for the meeting the same way regular attendees do, i.e., via the AAS 245 registration page.

Press registration deadline: Wednesday, 8 January 2025. After this date, we will be unable to process your press registration to attend the meeting. We strongly advise you register in advance to avoid last-minute complications; please send your email request to [email protected] as soon as you know you’re attending the meeting. Full instructions and registration links are available on the AAS 245 press information page.

Press Facilities

The AAS will operate a press office in Maryland Ballroom 4 in the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, with working space, printer/photocopier, power strips, and internet connectivity for reporters and PIOs. 

Press conferences will be hosted daily Monday – Thursday, 13–16 January, to showcase some of the most exciting recent astronomical discoveries. We expect two briefings each day, each lasting around an hour, as well as an additional Seminar for Science Writers session. The briefings and seminar will be held on-site and live-streamed on Zoom for virtual press conference viewers. They will also be live-streamed on the AAS Press Office YouTube channel (where you will not be able to ask questions; to do that, you will need to participate via Zoom) and archived there. 

Press conferences will be held in Maryland Ballroom 5/6. Briefing schedule, topics, and speakers will be announced via another media advisory closer to the meeting date; as always, the press program will be subject to change.   

A dedicated press interview space, Maryland Ballroom 3, will be available Sunday through Thursday for use by press registrants; use the online signup sheet here to reserve this room for use at specific dates and times. 

Press Meet & Greet

Press registrants are welcomed to attend an informal meet & greet event on Monday, 13 January, at 12:45 pm ET, between the final morning plenary session and lunch. Come stop by the press office to see your colleagues, meet new people, network, and make plans for the week!

Press Tour

We are unfortunately unable to offer a press tour at AAS 245. The press program will end on Thursday, 16 January.

Program Points of Interest

Division Meetings

This winter’s AAS meeting will be jointly held with the AAS’s Historical Astronomy Division (HAD) and High Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD). The HAD meeting will include three oral sessions on Sunday through Tuesday and a town hall. The HEAD meeting will include schedule items like a special session on gravitational-wave and multi-messenger astronomy. Martin Weisskopf (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center) and Paolo Soffitta (INAF Institute of Space Astrophysics and Planetology) will present the HEAD Bruno Rossi Prize lecture on the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE).

Prize Lectures & Invited Talks

AAS 245 will offer 15 additional prize and invited talks by distinguished astronomers. The meeting opens on Monday morning, 8 January, with the Fred Kavli Plenary Lecture, which will be presented by David Charbonneau (Harvard University) who is being honored with the Kavli lectureship for foundational work in the field of exoplanets, from the discovery of the first transit to major advancements in our understanding of exoplanet atmospheres. The closing plenary talk, on Thursday afternoon, 16 January, is the Lancelot M. Berkeley – New York Community Trust Prize lecture, to be given by members of the Astropy Collaboration, a lauded community effort to develop a free and open-source core software package for astronomy using the Python programming language.

This year, the Henry Norris Russell Lecture will be given by Neta A. Bahcall (Princeton University) on the unveiling of the dark side of the universe. The 2024 Dannie Heineman Prize lecture — awarded jointly by the AAS and the American Institute of Physics — will be  given by John E. Carlstrom (University of Chicago) on past, present, and future cosmic microwave background surveys.

Via an exchange with the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), we’ll hear from Gilles Chabrier (Lyon Centre for Astrophysics Research (CRAL), France), winner of the 2024 RAS Gold Medal in Astronomy, about applying basic physics to astrophysical fundamental questions.

Rounding out the AAS 245 prize lectures, the 2024 Annie Jump Cannon Award winner, Jenny Bergner (University of California, Berkeley), will speak on the icy origins of planetary systems, and the 2024 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize winner, Maria Drout (University of Toronto), will discuss the evolution, influence, and ultimate fate of massive stars.

In addition, there will be a host of invited plenaries by distinguished speakers. On Monday, Alexandra Pope (University of Massachusetts Amherst) will speak on the formative years of star formation and supermassive black holes, Jason Kalirai (Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory) will provide an update on the DART mission to deflect the asteroid Dimorphos, and Dave Pooley (Trinity University and Eureka Scientfic, Inc.) will give an overview of the incredible power of the Chandra X-ray Observatory. On Tuesday, Kate Follette (Amherst College) will discuss direct observational constraints on planet formation and accretion, and Shouleh Nikzad (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) will give us a primer on how silicon detectors came to enable space missions. Wednesday will feature talks by Giada Arney (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) on the search for life on habitable worlds, and by Aaron Meisner (NSF NOIRLab) on the solar neighborhood and the Milky Way’s substellar halo. And on Thursday, Stella Offner (University of Texas, Austin) will discuss the star formation engine.

Town Halls, Special Sessions, Splinter Meetings

Additional programming includes 10 lunchtime and evening Town Hall meetings on astronomy and public policy featuring representatives from major astronomy organizations, facilities, and missions. Among the many Town Halls, Special Sessions, and Splinter Meetings, a few examples that may be of interest to the media are: 

• Town Hall: AAS Task Force on the Use of AI in Astronomy
• SPHEREx: the Upcoming All-sky Infrared Spectroscopic Survey
• Dark and Quiet Skies: Recent Developments, Environmental Impacts, and Pathways Forward
• The 100th Anniversary of Hubble Announcing the Discovery of the Universe
• NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory
• The Power of Collaborative Networks in the Era of Big Data

A Note on Visas and Restrictions for Travel to the United States

Visa requirements for international travelers to the USA have become more stringent, and travel restrictions and measures may be in place for US citizens and international citizens entering the country. If you are an international traveler, you are responsible for determining the current travel restrictions and visa requirements that apply to you. Additional information is available from the US State Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If you need a letter for a visa application certifying that you are registered for the meeting, please request your complimentary press registration as soon as possible; only after you complete it can the AAS Press Office send you such a letter.

AAS Press List

If you don't already receive press releases by email from the AAS Press Office, you should sign up now to guarantee that you receive future meeting advisories as well as other important announcements. To sign up for the AAS Press List at no charge, please fill out and submit the form you'll find linked from our Join the AAS Press List page. With few exceptions, only accredited journalists and PIOs are eligible to receive press releases from the AAS, as described on our press-credentials page.