AAS 237 Is Going Virtual!

The health and safety of our members, presenters, exhibitors, and attendees is our number one priority. After careful consideration, and based on the continuing outbreak of the coronavirus in Arizona and the rest of the US and its impact on our community's (in)ability to travel to Phoenix, we’ve made the decision to transition AAS 237 to a virtual meeting, as we did with AAS 236.

We’ve tweaked the dates to avoid clashing with the holidays: AAS 237 will take place 11-15 January 2021 (instead of the first week of January) so that attendees can celebrate New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day with their families.

The virtual AAS 237 meeting will include many of the same features and rich content that registrants at in-person gatherings have come to expect, include plenary talks, parallel oral sessions, iPosters, iPoster-Plus sessions, town halls, splinter meetings, workshops, press conferences, an interactive exhibit hall, and multiple networking opportunities. All talks will be recorded for later access and, as usual, iPosters will be available shortly before, during, and after the meeting. Please note that workshops will be held the preceding Thursday-Friday, 7-8 January 2021. Submissions for splinter meetings and workshops will reopen in early August.

Registration for the virtual meeting will open in August, with a significantly reduced fee structure relative to an in-person meeting. More information about abstract submission and the scientific program will be posted soon.

We will again waive the “once in a lifetime” limit on dissertation talks. Any recent or pending PhD recipient who gives a virtual dissertation talk at AAS 237 will be allowed to repeat the presentation at a future in-person AAS meeting, if they wish to.

We successfully transitioned the summer AAS meeting to a virtual experience last month, with over 1,300 attendees from 38 countries convening for three days to hear from more than 600 speakers, making the historic and groundbreaking virtual conference one of our biggest summer AAS meetings ever. We are grateful to everyone — including the attendees, speakers, and sponsors — who made AAS 236 such a success. The virtual 237th AAS meeting will build upon this success, on a secure and engaging platform, and we are looking forward to the opportunity for members to come together from all corners of the globe, and to foster the sense of community that is unique to the AAS.

We appreciate your flexibility and support during this challenging time. We are committed to delivering the full AAS meeting experience and will keep you posted via our website, email, and social media.

As always, we hold in our thoughts all those affected by COVID-19, and we wish you good health.