AAS 209th Meeting - Abstracts

AAS ABSTRACTS

To give an AAS presentation in Seattle an abstract (300 word limit) submission must be completed by the deadline, Wednesday, 18 October 2006, 9pm EDT. Late papers are accepted through Wednesday, 6 December 2006.

ABSTRACT FORM: The AAS abstract submission procedure uses the OASIS system. Online submission begins by verifying membership status at: members.aas.org/abstracts.

Rules and Regulations

The AAS Council specifies the following regulations for submission and presentation of papers at an AAS meeting:

Members

Any member of the AAS may submit a paper. You can verify your status in the Public Directory or Members-Only Directory, members.aas.org.
Former members must reinstate their membership.
The presenter must be listed as the first author on the paper.
The presenting/first author must register for the meeting.

Nonmembers

Nonmembers may present one paper at one AAS meeting if the abstract is countersigned by a Full Member; and they register for the meeting at the nonmember rate. Registration and abstract submission are separate processes. Registration does not have to be submitted by the abstract deadline but must complete 30 days prior to the meeting.
If an Undergraduate Guest gives a paper, he/she does so as a nonmember and is subject to the usual rules governing presentation of papers by nonmembers.
Society of Physics Student Affiliates are considered nonmembers for abstract submission but may register at the Junior rate.
Subsequent papers will be accepted only if the nonmember successfully applies for membership in the Society.

One Paper Per Meeting

You may only present one paper (whether oral or poster) at a meeting, with the exceptions listed below. You may co-author several papers but may be the first author and presenter for only one paper.
Exceptions, if you are presenting any of the following: Prize Lectures, Invited Talks, Division Invited Talks, Special Session Invited Talks, Topical Session Invited Talks, Contributed education papers, Contributed historical papers, and papers for working group meetings you may still be the first author and presenter for an additional contributed scientific research paper.

Submission Process - Invited Speakers

Invited Speakers will receive separate abstract submission instructions. A link to the Invited Speaker's abstract form is included. This link by-passes the membership validation process. Contact abs-help@aas.org for assistance. Invited Speakers include:

AAS Invited Speakers who were invited by the Society Vice-Presidents
Prize Lecturers invited by Society or Division Officers
Division Invited Speakers invited by Division Officers
Special Session Speakers invited by the Session Organizer
Topical Session Speakers invited by the Session Organizer

Submission Process - Contributed Presentations

It is assumed that the presenting author is submitting the abstract. If this is not the case, you will need to obtain the presenting author’s membership status and if a member, their login information.

The ABSTRACT FORM for contributed presentations is posted online at: members.aas.org/abstracts

Membership Status

The submission process begins with membership verification.

Active Members and recently expired Members will be asked to login to the Members Only website.
To obtain your login/password use the “My Login Information” feature. This feature sends instructions to the email address associated with the member record. Active Members may verify the email address of record by accessing the Public Directory on www.aas.org. To update an email address contact address@aas.org or 202-328-2010, ext. 101.
Nonmembers must prove eligibility and provide the name of the Full AAS Member that has agreed to sponsor their presentation. The Sponsor’s only obligation is to vouch for the merit of the research that will be presented. The Sponsor will be notified.

Abstract Form Steps

The form contains instructions on the various steps required to complete a submission. Once you have completed the Title Step you are assigned a control number and may exit and re-enter the system. Re-entry may be cumbersome for non-members as they may have to repeat the validation screens. The abstract must be complete by the deadline.

Corrections

Prior to the abstract deadline, authors may make their own corrections by re-entering the form, members.aas.org/abstracts. Re-entry may be cumbersome for non-members. After the deadline, send corrections to the Help Desk. Corrections are no longer made once the abstracts have been exported to the Press Office, to the BAAS and to the ADS.

Because eligibility is established on the Presenting Author, his/her name may not be edited on the abstract form. Contact the Help Desk to have spelling errors corrected. To switch presenting authors you must submit a new abstract.

Help Desk: support@abstractsonline.com, 217-398-1792

Presentation of Papers

Audiovisual Equipment

Audiovisual equipment MUST be ordered via email (speakerready@aas.org) at least 24 hours prior to your presentation or personally handed to the American Audio Video technician in the speaker ready room.

VCRs/Monitors: must be ordered and cost $85. Payment may be made with registration and must be paid for by the start of the meeting.
35mm and Overhead Projectors: are free but must be ordered 24 hours in advance from the speaker ready room technician.
Microphones: Each oral session room will have two microphones: a wireless lapel microphone, and a hard mounted podium microphone. You do not need to place an order for microphones.
LCD Projectors and Laptops: will be provided in every oral session room, free of charge. YOU MAY NOT USE YOUR OWN. There will be one Mac laptop and one PC laptop in each room. You do not need to place an order to use the LCD Projector, but the following requirements must be strictly adhered to:

PRESENTATION: PowerPoint, Keynote, or Adobe Acrobat are the only accepted formats. Your presentation must be compatible with Office XP (2003) for PC or OS X for Mac. The PCs in the session rooms will be loaded with Windows XP Professional with Office XP, and the Macs will be loaded with OS X (10.46 Leopard) with Keynote and PowerPoint for Mac. All presentations must be in one of these formats.
MOVIES: Movie files should be linked to your presentation rather than embedded like a picture or drawing. If your presentation has linked files, you must copy the linked files as well as the presentation to your passoff media (see Drop Off below). QuickTime Movie files (.mov) or uncompressed Tiff files will not work as linked movies in the PC version of PowerPoint. Please convert these types of files into MPEG (.mpg, .mpeg) or AVI (.avi) formats if you wish to link them to your PowerPoint file.
LABEL: Your presentation file must be labeled with the session number, speaker number, and your last name (for example “35.03_smith”). Please double check your file name before dropping off your file.
DROP OFF: At least one day in advance of your session, bring your presentation on a CD-ROM or USB Flash Disk (PC formatted) to the Speaker Ready Room (Room 603-4).
SPEAKER READY ROOM: The Speaker Ready Room is located room 603-4. The computers in the speaker ready room and each of the session rooms are EXACTLY alike. If your presentation presents correctly in the Speaker Ready Room, it will present correctly in any Session Room. A technician will be in the Speaker Ready Room all day to assist you. Please feel free to drop by and ask questions.
IN THE SESSION: You will control your presentation on the computer in the session room. There will be a laptop for you to use. Please do not attempt to load your presentation on this laptop as it may be deleted remotely.

Questions: Prior to the meeting, contact Rick Mathews with American Audio Video, speakerready@aas.org, 703-573-6910, 703-569-6701. Onsite, a technician will be in the Speaker Ready Room (603-4) all day to assist you.

Poster Presentations

Posters allow far more time and flexibility. Poster is the default presentation type. Posters are ideal for using charts, graphs or detailed visual aids. The poster area serves as the meeting’s social center, including coffee breaks and cocktail hours.

Your presentation should fit within an approximate 44" x 44" square area. Poster boards are slightly different at each meeting and may be as large as four feet square. Please bring your own thumbtacks.
We will arrange poster sessions by topic.
Approximately two hours each day will be set aside for the poster presentations when no other sessions are scheduled. The authors need not be present the entire time but should post the hours when they will be present at their poster.
Posters may be set up after 7:30am and must be removed by the end of the evening cocktail hour. Posters left up after 7:00pm will be discarded.
Requests for extra space to accommodate models or equipment should be made in the “Special Instructions” box on the abstract form and are subject to approval.
When preparing your poster, remember to use bold graphs, photographs, figures, and tables. Include a title and the names of authors in large type. Text should be large enough to be legible from a distance of three to four feet, ~ 20 point font. Keep the poster simple and easy to read. For further recommendations read, How Do You Prepare A Research Poster? on the-aps.org website.
Consider posting a photo of yourself with your presentation.

Oral Papers

To give an oral presentation, select “oral” as presentation type on the abstract form. To avoid too many oral sessions running simultaneously, the number of oral presentation time slots is limited. We may change some to posters. All authors whose papers are changed from oral to poster will be notified.

Five minutes are allowed for the normal oral presentation and three minutes for open discussion.
When preparing your presentation, we suggest a maximum of three slides or transparencies for a five-minute talk. Slides should be uncluttered and easy to read.
Practice a few times so the presentation fits comfortably into the five-minute slot.
Read the AV instructions.

Dissertation Abstracts

If you would like to present a 15 minute dissertation abstract, select “dissertation” as presentation type on the abstract form. We urge authors to submit dissertation abstracts a week before the deadline.

Dissertation Abstracts are oral presentations of 15 minutes plus a few minutes for discussion. They should be based upon the author’s dissertation material, and will be presented within regular oral sessions of appropriate topics.
Only students or graduates within one year of receiving the PhD are eligible. The author’s advisor must attest to this fact in writing. The author must submit a copy of the thesis advisor’s letter in PDF format through the abstract submission website by the abstract deadline. A PDF copy of an email message is sufficient as long as the advisor’s email address is legible. If the advisor letter is not received, it will automatically be treated as a regular abstract.
Students or graduates wishing to submit Dissertation Abstracts must be accepted for membership in the AAS by the abstract deadline. The nomination form can be downloaded from the Membership section of the website or obtained from the AAS Executive Office.)
These papers are subject to the same rules of preparation and submission as regular oral and poster papers, but they will be specially marked in the Final Program.
Dissertation papers arriving after the abstract deadline will be treated as regular late paper
A person may present a Dissertation Abstract only once.
No AAS funds are available for travel to the meeting for these presentations.

Student Award Posters

For eligibility see, members.aas.org/grants/student.cfm

Invited Presentations

Invited presentations are the highlight of every meeting. To ensure publication of every invited talk, abstracts of all invited presentations are due one week prior to the abstract deadline.

Guidelines for invited talks are sent to the individual speakers.
AAS Invited Speakers, those invited by the Society Vice Presidents will receive guidelines from the AAS Office.
Special, Topical, Division, Committee or Working Group Session Invited Speakers will receive guidelines from the Session Organizer.
Invited Speakers may present a second contributed paper.
Read the audiovisual equipment instructions.

Proxy

Papers by North American residents may not be presented by proxy. If an author is unable to attend, his or her paper will be presented by title only. The abstract will still be printed in the BAAS. Notify abs-help@aas.org if an author cannot attend.
In the case of severe physical misfortune, a joint paper may be presented by a co-author, even if the co-author is presenting another paper. The original author must notify the Executive Office, making an explicit statement of the cause.
If a member residing outside of North America belatedly discovers that they cannot attend the meeting, they may arrange to have the paper presented by another member. The Executive Office must be notified ahead of time.

Deadlines, Late Papers, Schedule Changes

We will strictly adhere to the following deadlines.

The deadline for receipt of abstracts is 9:00pm EDT, Wednesday 18 October 2006.
Abstracts received after 9:00pm (ET) will be considered late papers. There are no exceptions to this deadline.
The Council mandates that abstracts received after the deadline will not be published in the Meeting Program. Accepted late papers are assigned to an extra poster session for late papers, scheduled on the last day of the meeting.
Abstracts of late papers will be accepted by the Executive Office until 6 December 2006.
No late papers are accepted at the meeting. A Late Paper Schedule will be included in the Program Update distributed at the meeting. Late papers are scheduled as poster presentations on the last day of the Meeting and published in a subsequent issue of the BAAS.

Schedule Changes

If, after the Final Program has been released, you have a problem with the scheduling of your abstract, contact Kelli Gilmore (gilmore@aas.org). Include the Session number where you are currently scheduled and the Session(s) number where you would like to be scheduled. No changes will be made to the Meeting Schedule after 6 December 2006.

Publication of Papers

The meeting and abstract schedule are published in various formats.

Paper Final Program: mailed to those who meet the early registration deadline and is distributed at the meeting. Includes abstract titles.
Online Final Program: available in December. Includes full abstract text. Members and presenters are notified as soon as the Program is online.
Bulletin of the AAS: mailed to subscribers and distributed at the meeting. Includes full abstract text. Late papers are published in a subsequent issue.
Program Update: distributed at the meeting. Includes the late paper titles.
Astrophysics Data System: all abstracts are sent to ADS.