13 Nov 2025

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 247th AAS Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, in January

Thousands of astronomers and affiliates are expected to gather in Phoenix, Arizona, this January for the 247th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). From 4 to 8 January 2026, astronomers, students, educators, and journalists will come together at the Phoenix Convention Center (100 N 3rd St, Phoenix, AZ 85004) for a full schedule of scientific presentations, community-building workshops, town halls, career sessions, and more. Social media hashtag: #aas247.

The AAS offers complimentary press registration to bona fide working journalists and public-information officers (PIOs), as explained below. AAS 247 will feature both an in-person press registration option and a virtual press registration option that will allow streaming access for the press conferences only. In-person press registrants at AAS 247 will also be able to participate in a tour to NSF’s Kitt Peak National Observatory on Friday, 9 January; see below for details.

AAS 247 Meeting Links

• Home Page
• Travel & Lodging Information (deadline for hotel reservations at the discounted AAS group rate: 11 December or whenever sold out)
• Press Information

Press Registration

AAS 247 will be an in-person meeting only; there will be no virtual attendance option for the general meeting. The press conferences, however, can be attended both in person and virtually via Zoom.

In-Person Press Attendance:

The AAS offers complimentary in-person meeting registration to bona fide working journalists and public information officers (PIOs). 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 247 IN-PERSON 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 247 registration page.

Virtual Press Attendance (press conferences only):

If you do not plan to be on-site in Phoenix but you would like to attend the press conferences virtually, contact the AAS Press Office with your name and media affiliation (or “freelance” if applicable); please specify "AAS 247 VIRTUAL press conference attendance" in the subject line. You will be added to a virtual press conference attendance list and will be sent the press conference schedule and Zoom webinar links in advance of the meeting.

Press registration deadline: Wednesday, 31 December 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 247 press information page. 

Press Facilities

The AAS will operate a press office in room 130 (street level) of the North Building of the Phoenix Convention Center, with working space, printer/photocopier, power strips, and internet connectivity for reporters and PIOs.

Press conferences will be hosted daily Monday – Thursday, 5–8 January, to showcase some of the most exciting recent astronomical discoveries. The briefings 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 room 129A of the North Building of the Phoenix Convention Center. 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.

There will be no dedicated press interview space at AAS 247; if you’re in need of space, please contact [email protected] to coordinate use of the press conference room outside of press conference hours.

Press Tour to NSF Kitt Peak National Observatory

On Friday, 9 January, press registrants will have the opportunity to take part in an exclusive media visit to what is arguably the largest collection of major optical research telescopes on Earth. This full day of US-funded astronomical discovery will give press participants the unique opportunity to tour the NSF McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope (once the world's largest solar telescope), the new Windows on the Universe exhibition, the WIYN 3.5-meter Telescope with the state-of-the-art exoplanet-discovery machine NEID, and the NSF Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope, where astronomers using the DOE-funded Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) are expanding the largest-ever 3D map of the universe to probe dark energy. 

The tour will depart from the Phoenix Convention Center at 8 am on Friday, 9 January, and arrive back around 7 pm. To help us gauge interest in this tour, please fill out the online expression of interest form by 12 December. Wear sturdy/hiking footwear and winter coats. Bring water, snacks, and a government-issued ID (or a passport, if you are not a US citizen), as the bus will cross through a border control checkpoint.

To help us gauge interest in this tour, please fill out the online expression of interest form by 12 December.

Program Points of Interest

Division Meetings

This winter’s AAS meeting will be jointly held with the AAS’s Historical Astronomy Division (HAD). The HAD meeting will include several oral sessions, a business meeting, and a town hall. Thomas Hockey (University of Northern Iowa) will deliver the HAD LeRoy E. Doggett Prize Plenary, “Don't Let Anybody Tell You to Plan Your Career,” on Tuesday.

Prize Lectures & Invited Talks

AAS 247 will offer 16 prize and invited talks by distinguished astronomers. The meeting opens on Monday morning, 5 January, with the Fred Kavli Plenary Lecture, which will be presented by Daniella Mendoza DellaGiustina (University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory) on behalf of NASA's OSIRIS-REx sample-return mission team. DellaGiustina will talk about how the OSIRIS-REx mission changed our understanding of asteroids. The closing plenary talk, on Thursday afternoon, 8 January, is the Lancelot M. Berkeley – New York Community Trust Prize lecture, to be given by Daniel Eisenstein (Harvard University) on behalf of the DESI Collaboration, which has created the largest 3D map of the universe, enabling the study of the effects of dark energy over cosmic time.

This year, the Henry Norris Russell Lecture will be given by Marcia Rieke (University of Arizona) on the most distant galaxies found with JWST. The 2025 Dannie Heineman Prize lecture — awarded jointly by the AAS and the American Institute of Physics — will be given by Priyamvada Natarajan (Yale University), who is recognized for her work on dark matter and the formation of black holes. And via an exchange with the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), we’ll hear from James Binney (University of Oxford, UK), winner of the 2025 RAS Gold Medal in Astronomy, about the structure and evolution of galaxies.

Rounding out the AAS 247 prize lectures, the 2025 Annie Jump Cannon Award winner, Maya Fishbach (Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Toronto), will speak on gravitational waves from the stellar graveyard, and the 2025 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize winner, Andrew Vanderburg (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), will discuss what happens to planets after their stars die. Lastly, the High Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD) Bruno Rossi prize plenary will be given Maura McLaughlin and Xavier Siemens on behalf of the NANOGrav collaboration.

In addition, there will be a host of invited plenaries by distinguished speakers. On Monday, Adam Burgasser (UC San Diego) will speak on how failed stars play a unique role in galactic archaeology, and Björn Benneke (UC Los Angeles) will talk about a new era of planetary astrophysics with JWST and high-resolution spectrographs. On Tuesday, Raja GuhaThakurta (UC Santa Cruz) will discuss STEAM experiential learning in the context of open-ended research. Wednesday will feature talks by Adam Leroy (Ohio State University) and Alexander Furnas (Northwestern University), and Tonima Ananna (Wayne State University) will speak about the accretion history of active galactic nuclei. And on Thursday, Evgenya Shkolnik (Arizona State University) will present “From CubeSats to Flagships: Innovation Through Exoplanet Exploration.”

Town Halls, Agency Updates & Special Sessions

Further programming includes seven Town Halls and Agency Updates for NASA, the National Science Foundation, Space Telescope Science Institute, and more. Additionally, dozens of Special Sessions will include topics like “JWST Deep Galaxy Searches: What We've Learned from the First 3 Years,” “Make Your Voice Heard as an Advocate for Science,” and “First Science Results from the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory.”

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. 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.