AAS 209th Meeting - Preliminary Sessions and Events

Strategies for Creating a Learner-Centered Introductory College Astronomy Course
(formerly titled The NASA Center for Astronomy Education (CAE) Teaching Excellence Workshop)
The overarching goal of this workshop is to help *past workshop participants* with their obstacles to implementing a learner-centered introductory college astronomy course. Specifically, workshop participants will work to understand how students learn while engaged in learner-centered activities and what the role of the instructor is in the learner-centered class.

Presenters: Edward Prather, Timothy Slater, Gina Brissenden (Univ. of Arizona, CAPER Team)

*This is an advanced course. You must have participated in a past workshop to attend this workshop.*

SATURDAY

ComPADRE Workshops
ComPADRE is an ongoing collaboration to provide community collections and tools for sharing teaching and learning resources in Physics and Astronomy. This workshop will introduce comPADRE’s network of websites, the materials it contains, submission tools for contributing resources, editorial tools for managing and reviewing materials, and, the communication tools for sharing expertise. Participants will use the ComPADRE’s collections to gather content and materials for a class and share their ideas for using the materials. Topics covered include information databases submitting resources, reviewing materials, and developing new collections. depending on the interests of the audience. ComPADRE is partially funded by the National Science Foundation.

ComPADRE has three two-hour sessions each focused on different audiences
1) pre-college science, 2) undergraduate physics, 3) introductory undergraduate astronomy. Participants may sign up for one, two or three sessions. Some computing facilities will be available, but participants are strongly encouraged to bring a computer to work with the collections.

Career Workshop
Registrants for this special workshop (attendance is limited) will learn how to market themselves in today's challenging employment environment. Ms. Jennifer Giesler, program officer for mentoring programs at the Geological Society of America, will spend the morning portion (9am-12noon) of the workshop providing insight into the current job market for astronomers, how to capitalize on unique skills and abilities to land a job, unveil the interview process and discuss other topics based on questions from participants. The afternoon portion (1-4pm) of the workshop is direct one-on-one review of participant resumes with special emphasis on resume customization. The registration fee for this event is $35 and may be paid with your meeting registration.

EPO Programs by NASA Research Grant Awardees
This session is intended to highlight and serve those NASA research grant awardees who have carried out programs in education and public outreach (EPO). It is also intended to provide introductory information for space scientists who have yet to get involved in EPO but are interested in doing so. The session will include oral presentations on NASA's Science Mission Directorate EPO program, current EPO grant opportunities, and ways to navigate the proposal process. It will also include contributed oral and poster presentations by NASA research grant awardees which describe their EPO programs.

Undergraduate Orientation
Undergraduate students, their advisors and those interested in attracting undergraduate students to their graduate program, or undergraduate research opportunity are invited to attend this event. The Chair of the Astronomy Education Board will explain how to get the most benefit from an AAS meeting and outline how the meeting works. The leadership of the AAS will also be in attendance to answer questions and get to know the undergraduate attendees. Tickets are required and are available free of charge to all undergrads, their advisors and those offering research opportunities (or jobs) to undergraduates, through the meeting registration form and will be placed in their registration envelope. Light snacks and refreshments will be provided. Organizations hoping to recruit undergraduate students may reserve poster display space for a small fee.

Contact Susana Deustua, Director of Educational Activities (deustua@aas.org), for further details.

Opening Reception
This opening reception is for all participants and registered guests. It will feature a cash bar and light snacks (not to be construed as dinner!).

SUNDAY-WEDNESDAY

Gadgets and Gizmos
If you're interested in sharing educational materials you've developed, adapted and used, whether you're new to teaching or an old hand, this session is for you. Suitable demonstrations include interactive web tools (applets, immersive experiences, touch screens), instructional software, remote observing tools, audience response systems ("clickers"), wireless delivery of content to handheld devices, laboratory activities, planetarium programs, etc., etc., and, of course, real gadgets and gizmos. Only non-commercial educational products, for any level and for any audience, are appropriate for this forum. Presenters may distribute materials – print, CD, DVD -- but not conduct sales.

Gadgets and Gizmos will be located in the main lobby right across from the Exhibit Hall and between the Cyber Café and the registration area. It will be open throughout the week to give everyone the opportunity for a hands-on experience. If you are interested in using this forum, or have questions about the suitability of an idea or technology, please email deustua@aas.org.

Registration: If you wish to be a presenter, please fill out the registration form at www.aas.org/meetings/gadgetregform.php. The deadline is 18 October 2006. G&G registrations received by the deadline will be included in the meeting program book. Please remember to provide a title, brief description of your demonstration to and note any specific display, space, electrical and internet requirements as well as the times you will be present. We do ask that your demonstrations be as stand alone as possible as during peak usage times internet access at the convention center can be limited. There may be a fee for internet connections and computer rentals. Presenting at G&G does not count against the one-author rule for contributed papers.

SUNDAY

“Clickers” in Astronomy Teaching
Wireless student response systems - “clickers” - address two of the oldest and most fundamental challenges in teaching: how to engage students, and how to determine if they are learning what you are teaching. Clickers are relatively low cost and easy to use, and their use is spreading remarkably fast throughout the US, with many universities using thousands. Astronomy textbooks may be ordered with coupons for clickers in them. Like any technology, clickers can be misused or used for cheating. This session would offer a mix of invited and contributed talks to let astronomers share the most successful experiences and "watch outs" when using clickers.

The SDSS Supernova Survey
The SDSS Supernova Survey, one of the major components of SDSS-II, is being carried out over the 2005-7 Fall seasons. This survey aims to obtain well-sampled, well-calibrated, multi-band light-curves for a large number of type Ia supernovae in the ‘redshift desert,’ z=0.1-0.3, to probe the dark energy and to study the systematics of supernovae as distance indicators. It therefore complements on-going surveys at both lower and higher redshift. In its first season (Sept-Nov. 2005), the survey discovered over 120 spectroscopically confirmed SNe Ia. The aim of this Special Session will be to present the first science results from the first season (Fall 2005), including the Hubble diagram and the supernova rate, as well as to highlight early results from the current (2006) season.

NSF Town Hall
The Division of Astronomical Sciences of NSF will continue its discussion with the community at this town meeting. Staff will provide updates on the status of the NSF and Divisional budgets, highlight new and continued funding opportunities, and discuss ongoing strategic planning and coordination with other agencies. Updates will be provided on the activities of the senior review being carried out by the Division with a discussion of its recommendations should they be available at the time of the meeting. The majority of the session will be reserved for questions and discussion.

NSF Astronomy Division Senior Review Outcome
Over the past year, the Astronomy Division at NSF has been carrying out a review of its portfolio and an examination of the balance of investments in the various facilities AST supports. The primary goal of the review and the adjustment of balance that will result is to enable progress on the recommendations of the Decadal Survey and other community reports while preserving, or even growing, a healthy core program of astronomical research.

A committee of representatives from the community, chaired by Roger Blandford, worked extensively over the period October 2005 – October 2006 to develop and formulate its recommendations. Their report is expected to be completed and provided to NSF in November 2006. During this session, NSF representatives will discuss the report and its recommendations, and describe the development of an implementation plan. Initial presentations by NSF staff and the committee Chair will be followed by an open forum for discussion.

Cosmic Microwave Background
Measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation have made an enormous impact on cosmology over the last 15 years. Recently experiments have released data giving precision measurements of the
power spectrum of the fluctuations on both large and small angular scales and convincingly detecting the CMB polarization signal.

The future holds promise for precision measurements of the E mode polarization of the power spectrum, the detection of thousands of clusters of galaxies and low and high redshifts, and perhaps a detection of the so-called B-mode polarization coming from gravitational waves produced during the epoch of inflation. All of
this data will give tighter constraints on cosmological parameters, provide new information about the evolution of the universe and could elucidate fundamental physical processess in the early universe.

The session will begin with a review and motivation for future measurements of the CMB. Several talks will give new results from temperature and polarization measurements from current instruments. In the last part of the session we will discuss the path to a future NASA satellite mission devoted to measurements of the CMB polarization.

Cool Astronomy For Everyone
Continuation of the popular Cool Astronomy oral session.

AIP Gemant Award Lecture
Dr. Jim Stith of AIP, make present the award and introduce Marcia Bartusiak. Ms. Bartusiak is the author of numerous popular books on astronomy and cosmology, including "Einstein's Unfinished Symphony," "Thursday's Universe," "Through A Universe Darkly" and most recently, "Archives of the Universe." The award is given to individuals who have linked physics to the arts and humanities. Previous winners include Philip Morrison, Freeman T. Dyson, Gerald Holton, Jeremy Bernstein, Cyril Stanley Smith, Martin Aitken, and Abraham Pais.

NASA's Planet Finding Missions
The President's Vision for Space Exploration calls for NASA to "conduct advanced telescope searches for Earth-like planets and habitable environments around other stars." These searches are led by the Navigator Program missions: SIM PlanetQuest and the Terrestrial Planet Finder Missions (TPF-C and TPF-I). Many observatories play important roles in exoplanet science: Kepler, Spitzer Space Telescope, JWST, the Keck and LBT Interferometers, and other ground-based observatories. This session will highlight recent exoplanet science discoveries, explore the exoplanet potential of future missions, and discuss opportunities for participation.

SPS/AAPT/AAS Undergraduate Science Evening
The AAS Education Office and the AIP/Society of Physics Students are sponsoring an "Evening with Scientists" for all undergraduates attending the AAS/AAPT Joint Meeting on Sunday Night from 7 to 9 pm. Two notable astronomers will give short (20 mins) presentations on their peresonal experiences as scientists, their perpectives on the field and their own research. Dinner, in the form of pizza, burritos and other student favorites will be provided. Undergraduates are invited to put up their posters for an hour of informal discussion with each other and the featured speakers to get a perspective on Astronomy that is often overlooked at large meetings.

MONDAY

Education with Large Astronomical Surveys
The creation of education resources to enhance science and technical skills and engage the public in understanding science have been integrated into main stream astronomical research efforts. Most of the resulting materials and resources have centered on small data sets culled by the resource developer. With the emergence of the National Virtual Observatory, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, WMAP, GOODS, and others as well as the promise of observatories such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, education utilizing such vast data stores has exciting potential. This kind of education has never been done before. This session is crafted to present the current thinking on the use of survey data for education, and to stimulate a discussion resulting in new strategies and collaborations. In addition to the 8 individuals already expressing interest in presenting at the session, we anticipate quite a number of additional presenters who would like to contribute. We also would like to have ample time for discussion, so we respectfully request half a day for this session. We also desire to discuss the implications of the education/public user on the data requirements and architectures being planned for new telescopes, to be integrated with the science requirements that will serve the research community.

The Future of Astronomy and Astrophysics at NASA
The president's proposed budget for FY2007 for NASA sets out significant reductions in the growth for space science funding, as well as reductions to previously planned Explorer and Flagship missions. With this proposed budget and recent changes in NASA’s Advisory structure, this is a good time to assess the state of astronomy and astrophysics at NASA. The AAS Committee on Astronomy & Public Policy has assembled a distinguished panel to discuss the FY2007 budget and what it implies for the future.

NRAO Town Meeting
This Town Meeting will inform the AAS membership about the status of key NRAO science operations and construction projects. Brief presentations will update the membership regarding: (a) Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) construction and planning for the North American ALMA Science Center; (b) Expanded Very Large Array (EVLA) construction and science commissioning; (c) science operations and instrument development plans at the Green Bank Telescope (GBT); and (d) science operations and instrument development at the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). At least half of the Town Meeting will be allocated for answering audience questions.

Formation and Detection of Habitable Planets
The detection of habitable planets is a challenging task that concerns both theorists and observers. As observational techniques for detection of terrestrial-type bodies are developed, theoretical investigations are carried out to identify the types of systems that may harbor such objects. The NASA Astrobiology Institute is one of the leading institutions actively involved in both the observational and theoretical aspects of research on extrasolar habitable planets. Many of NAI's leading teams (e.g., Universities of Hawaii, Colorado, Arizona, California at Los Angeles, Carnegie Institution of Washington, NASA Ames Center, SETI Institute, etc.) have taken major initiatives in understanding the origin of life as well as the possibility of its existence elsewhere in the universe. This session presents a series of talks on the current status of research on the detection and formation of habitable planets. The session includes invited talks by the scientists of the NASA Astrobiology Institute and will cover the following topics.

There will also be an associated poster session. Poster talks are strongly recommended.

Galactic and Extragalactic Surveys Using AzTEC
Following the successful commissioning and engineering run at the JCMT during the June 2005, the AzTEC instrument, a 144 element bolometer array configured to operate at 1100 micron, was invited as a guest instrument on the JCMT during the fall 2005 semester. A total of 15 different scientific projects lead by PIs in the UK, Canada, Netherlands, US, Mexico, and France were conducted in collaboration with the instrument team.With an effective mapping speed about 20 times that of the SCUBA instrument, these AzTEC surveys produced images of cold dust emission covering several times larger areas to a sensitivity comparable or deeper than all previous similar surveys conducted at mm/submm wavelengths.Many of these exciting new results are ready for public release through a series of talks and poster presentations. The uniqueness of the resulting data set in terms of its scope and sensitivity, its scientific impact on a number of fields, and its timeliness in terms of the upcoming ALMA commissioning should give this special session broad appeal amongst galactic and extragalactic astronomers.For the proposed special session at the Seattle AAS meeting, we have asked the leaders of the large submm galaxy surveys to present their results as the featured speakers and all other PIs to prepare one or more posters for the coordinated poster session. The large deep surveys covering the SHADES, the GOODS-North, and the COSMOS fields have the greatest impact in terms of broader scientific interests and following, while the surveys of highly biased fields surrounding high-z radio galaxies and quasars offer a compelling contrast to these high profile blank field surveys. The coordinated poster session in turn offers an opportunity for all other science PIs to present their exciting new galactic and extragalactic AzTEC results and for the students and postdocs in the instrument team to present their related technical and science papers. The opening introductory talk by the instrument PI G. Wilson will not only describe the technical details and performance of the instrument,but it will also highlight the key scientific results to draw the attention of the audience to the accompanying poster session.

Job Applicants: Top 10 Questions You Should Ask
Many younger astronomers are unaware of the dangers and pitfalls that await them in the job market. Issues related to fringe benefits (if any), moving expenses, medical coverage for family members, teaching versus research expectations, etc. can lead to misunderstandings and to serious difficulties if these are not addressed early in the job interview process. The AAS Committee on Employment has often received letters from concerned junior members of the society, who feel that they needed more guidance and assistance in entering the job market for the first time. The major areas of concern have included those just listed, but there may be others. We propose a panel presentation, whose members are asked to prepare in advance their top 10 questions that job applicants should ask, and we will instruct our panel members not to discuss their list at all with the other panel members prior to their presentations. This will ensure independent viewpoints and novel responses. The panel will consist of astronomers who have different perspectives on this issue, including old and young, postdoc and beyond, academic and non-academic. To kick off the session, we will invite a brief humorous presentation of the Top Ten List, in the style of The Night Show host David Letterman.

Meet JWST
(Monday evening, following the JWST reception)
In conjunction with the reception hosted by Northrop Grumman Space Technology, we will present
the status of the James Webb Space Telescope project. This will include talks by experts in the areas of
deploying Webb and its key technologies. We will also present a general overview of Webb-enabled science.

Meet the key players at the reception and get up to date on the development status and science plans.

Graduate Student - Employer Networking
Graduate students and those hoping to recruit them for employment in research, academia or industry are welcome to attend this evening networking event. The chair of the Employment Committee will be present to discuss the activities of the employment committee and how graduate students can benefit from them as well as briefly introducing the recruiters present. Tickets are required and are available free of charge to grad students and recruiters through the meeting registration form and will be placed in their registration envelope. Light snacks and refreshments will be provided. Organizations hoping to recruit graduate students may reserve poster display for a small fee. Contact aas@aas.org for further details.

TUESDAY

Observations and Models of Extragalactic LMXBs
The capability of the Chandra X-ray Telescope to clearly identify individual X-ray sources in galaxies in the local universe has led to a wealth of discoveries about the properties of low-mass X-ray Binaries (LMXBs). As the combination of a high mass remnant with a low mass companion, LMXBs are both tracers of the past history of massive star formation in galaxies and testing grounds for theories of binary stellar evolution. With the recent generation of X-ray telescopes, LMXBs in a wide range of galaxies in the local universe are being studied, opening up a large areas of discovery space. The study of LMXBs in elliptical galaxies has been particularly fruitful for two reasons: due to their large stellar masses and populous globular cluster systems ellipticals have rich LMXB populations both in the field and in clusters, and they lack current star formation so their X-ray point sources are clean samples of LMXBs. The purpose of this special session is to present the exciting observational results on LMXBs in elliptical galaxies and their rich implications for theoretical models to the community, and to stimulate discussion about further advances in the field. Specific new developments that will be discussed include constraints on the LMXB luminosity function at faint levels from ongoing very deep surveys, newly available tests of the impact of metallicity and age on LMXB formation and evolution, and the implications of the wide range of new observations for models of binary formation and evolution. The format of the special session is to have three talks by leading figures in field (Fabbiano, Kundu, and Kalogera), with each talk being 20 minutes and ten minutes for discussion.

Impact of Intelligent Design and Responses to It
Given the increasing attention that “alternatives to evolution” (intelligent design and other forms of pseudo science) have recently received and are receiving nationwide, it is appropriate for the Society to provide its members with some perspectives on addressing these vexing attacks on science. The AAS adopted a resolution in September, 2005 supporting the teaching of evolution, and against the insertion of non-scientific “alternatives to evolution” in the nation's pre-college science classes. Challenges to teaching scientifically accepted theories are increasing, and appearing as lawsuits — as demonstrated by the Dover Trial in Harrisburg, PA.

Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee
The Astronomy and Astrophysics Advsory Committee (AAAC) was constituted by Congress with OMB and agency support to advise both the Congress and the three Agencies supporting astronomy and astrophysics research programs, NASA, NSF, and DOE. The enabling legislation requires the AAAC to advise on (1) the coordination of programs in astronomy and astrophysics between the three agencies, and (2) the status of the Decadal Survey and like NRC reports. The committee is required to submit an annual report to Congress and the heads of the agencies with findings and recommendations in these areas. Since this report must be submitted by March 15, input from the community at the AAS meeting in January would be most valuable and appreciated by the committee. The last discussion was very late in the day and was not well attended; the goal here is to provide a further opportunity to involve the AAS membership in discussions with the committee members and the agency representatives who can attend about a broad range of issues affecting astronomy programs at the three agencies.

Decadal Survey Town Hall
In our field, the National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council (NRC) is best known as the organization that convenes the Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Surveys (AADSs). The series of AADS reports has provided priorities for the federal investment that has, in turn, enabled the remarkable success of the field. The January 2007 AAS meeting will provide a good opportunity to take stock of the progress that has been made since the 2001 AADS and to begin to turn our attention forward to planning the next one. The AADS process is organized by the NRC’s Board on Physics and Astronomy, in cooperation with the Space Studies Board and with the active involvement of their joint subcommittee, the Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics. With this session, the BPA/SSB/CAA will begin a dialogue with the community about the next AADS. The Boards are considering whether, in light of the current circumstances in the field, to recommend some adjustments in the decadal survey process. AAS members are encouraged to take the opportunity presented by this Town Hall to comment on this issue.

Science from the NDWFS Bootes Field
Deep multi-wavelength surveys are yielding exciting scientific results in all areas of astrophysics. In June of 2004 at the AAS meeting in Denver we held a successful topical session on the early science results from the many research programs that are making use of the extensive multi- wavelength data sets available for the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey (NDWFS) Bootes Field (Galex, Chandra, optical, near-IR, IRAC, MIPS, VLA, etc.). Covering 9.3 square degrees, the NDWFS Bootes field is a prototype of the large area deep multi-wavelength surveys now in progress and being planned.

At the time of our 2004 topical session, the Spitzer data had only just been obtained, the near-IR imaging was still in progress, and only sparse spectroscopic results were available. Since that meeting, the multi- wavelength observations have been completed, the available spectroscopic follow-up includes more than 20,000 spectra, and more than 50 refereed journal articles have appeared reporting results based on Bootes observations (http://www.noao.edu/noao/noaodeep/ndwfspublications.html).

The vast majority of the imaging data available for the Bootes field is now public.
The AGN and Galaxy Evolution Survey (AGES), a major spectroscopic follow-up of the NDWFS Bootes field undertaken with the MMT and Hectospec, is nearing public release. At the January 2007 AAS meeting we will again bring researchers together for a special session that will focus on the scientific results derived by the various groups studying the Bootes field. There will be an oral session on Tuesday afternoon, January 9th and a parallel poster session during the entire day.

The results presented will cover a broad range of topics, ranging from brown dwarfs, to the evolution of large scale structure in the Universe, to the discovery of a radio-loud quasar at z>6. The topics covered will be of interest to other multi- wavelength surveys and future full-sky surveys to be undertaken in the next decade.

Next Generation Radial Velocity Planet Surveys
The first decade of extrasolar planets around main-sequence stars has many milestones: the first planet around a Sun-like star, first multi-planet system, first transiting planet & first Neptune-mass planets, to name a few. Most of these firsts were due to the radial-velocity (RV) technique which has yet to reach its limits of precision or faintness. To accelerate the pace of RV searches requires broader and deeper searches for planets with new technologies, larger telescopes, and infrared spectra, in addition to improving upon existing techniques. As many of these technologies are currently in the planning and pilot phases, this session is particularly timely to report on the first results and the exciting near-future of RV surveys. The California and Carnegie Planet Search has recently been greatly expanded by the N2K survey that is using large telescopes for surveying thousands of stars and will soon reach for even lower masses with the Rocky Planet Finder telescope that is expected to have made it's first season of observations by the winter (Laughlin). The dispersed fixed-delay interferometer is the first technology to enable multiple object, wide-field surveys for planets. The first season of a pilot study on the SDSS telescope will be complete by next Fall, and the results will be presented in this session (Ge) as well as the prospects for an all-sky survey of 100k+ stars (Agol). The Precision Radial Velocity Spectrograph is an infrared instrument for the Gemini Telescopes which will enable searches for low-mass planets around late-type stars, and the instrument design will be selected this fall (Rayner). The Kepler satellite will be launched in 2007 which will search for earth-sized planet using the transit technique. An RV survey to follow up planet candidates is in the advanced planning stages (Latham). An RV instrument for the VLT is being designed that will push down to radial velocities capable of detecting earth-mass planets (Udry). We plan to have a poster session to report on technical breakthroughs, theory related to planet surveys, and other science that will be enabled by these surveys.

SAGE: Surveying the Agents of a Galaxy’s Evolution
The SAGE project has completed its observations of the Large Magellanic Cloud with the MIPS and IRAC instruments on board the Spitzer Space Telescope and release of the first catalog to the Spitzer Science Center is expected in fall 2006. SAGE will provide a unique data base to the community which can be expected to lead to a wealth of follow-up studies. We expect that the release will lead to active mining by the community, particularly in the areas of the star formation, interstellar medium research on a galactic scale, and late type stars. In addition, there are a multitude of complementary data sets on the LMC already available and intercomparison can be expected to lead to deeper insight in the lifecycle of the interstellar medium of galaxies.
Finally, SAGE offers a data set that connects the Spitzer survey of the Milky Way (GLIMPSE) and Spitzer surveys of galaxies (e.g. SINGS Legacy) and knowledge gained from SAGE about star formation and mass loss in the LMC will fundamentally constrain semi-empirical modeling of galaxies, and can be used to interpret interpret deep Spitzer surveys, e.g. the GOODS and SWIRE legacy projects. At this special session, the SAGE data base and its first results will be presented to the general astronomical community.

WEDNESDAY

Biology of Astrobiology I Extremes of Earth Life
Biology of Astrobiology II History of Earth’s Life
The field of astrobiology has emerged in the past decade as of tremendous interest and importance to AAS members, but there is difficulty for astronomers to be well informed in the non-astronomical aspects of the field, especially those involving biology. These sessions are designed to make a start in solving this problem.

The first session covers the basic data concerning extremophiles, microorganisms who thrive under extreme physical conditions of, for example, temperature, salinity, acidity, and pressure. The more we learn about these microbes on Earth, the more we realize that the extreme conditions on Mars or Europa do not at all rule out even Earth-like life, let alone microbes that may have adapted beyond the bounds of life as we know it. Talks will cover where we find these extremes, how the microbes cope and whether or not there are fundamental limits. Implications for astrobiology and other planetary habitats will also be discussed.

The second session covers the geological and paleontological record of the history of life on this planet, including discussion of uncertainities, basic techniques and examples of evolutionary principles. How dependent has this history been on random events? Or has the general course of life been largely inevitable? Implications for astrobiology and other planetary habitats will also be discussed.

Optical Cluster Finding: SDSS, RCS, DEEP
Galaxy clusters are the most visible features of large scale structure, occupying the deepest dark matter potential wells. The mass function of dark matter halos that are expected to host observable clusters can be predicted with confidence from theory, and is sensitively dependent on cosmology. If clusters can be detected with confidence and if their masses can be robustly estimated, they can provide powerful cosmological constraints. Clusters were first identified in optical imaging data as large numbers of galaxies clustered together in space and brightness. Early cluster imaging surveys were often contaminated by line-of-sight projection and the cluster community came to rely on a variety of other cluster detection methods, especially searches for cluster X-ray emission. A new generation of optical imaging and spectroscopic surveys (SDSS, Two-Degree Field, DEEP-II, and Red-sequence Cluster Survey for example) have revitalized optical cluster finding. They provide hundreds of thousands of galaxy redshifts, together with precise multi-color CCD photometry over wide fields. The tight convergence of cluster galaxies in color-magnitude space (the E/S0 ridgeline) has provided a way to largely eliminate projection in optical cluster selection. This session will provide an overview of recent studies of large-scale optically selected cluster catalogs. It will include presentations on the design, testing, and catalogs produced by of a variety of cluster finding techniques. We will invite speakers to describe SDSS and DEEP spectroscopically selected cluster catalogs, along with SDSS and RCS imaging catalogs. Further, we will invite speakers to describe the use of simulations in understanding cluster selection and measurement. Contributed posters for an associated poster session are encouraged.

Revealing the Hidden Nature of Space and Time (EPP2010)
The United States has been at the forefront of elementary particle physics for more than half a century. Physicists working in the United States developed many of the theoretical ideas that describe and explain how elementary particles interact and why they have the properties that they do. And the federal government has supported the experimental facilities -- including large particle accelerators -- that have produced profound scientific discoveries and a steady stream of new technologies. Yet as elementary particle physics is poised to address some of the most basic questions in science, our leadership position is now in jeopardy. Many of the major particle physics facilities in the United States are being closed or converted to other uses. Funding for particle physics in the United States has stagnated for more than a decade. Within a few years, the majority of U.S. experimental particle physicists will be working on experiments that are being conducted in other countries The National Academies convened a committee with membership drawn both from inside and outside the field of elementary-particle physics that was charged to construct a plan for U.S. participation in this effort through an in-depth assessment to identify, articulate and prioritize the scientific questions and opportunities that define elementary-particle physics and provide a 15-year plan for the future of the field.

D.B. Lang, National Research Council, will introduce members of the National Academies committee that prepared the "Revealing the Hidden Nature of Space and Time" report. The speakers, Edward Witten (Institute for Advanced Study), Helen Quinn (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center), and Neal Lane (Rice University) will present prepared remarks for 30-40 minutes and then open the floor for discussion and questions.

Ground-Based Mid-IR Astronomy in the Spitzer Era
Astronomers observing on 8-meter class telescopes in the mid-IR (the 10 and 20 micron windows) can now obtain diffraction limited images and medium to high resolution spectra. These capabilities are a valuable complement to those of the Spitzer Space Telescope. In this special session we will present examples of the exciting science being done in the mid-IR that draws upon the capabilities of both Gemini and Spitzer. This topic is particularly timely because Spitzer's cryogenic lifetime is now predicted to end in 2009 Apr/May. There are two important capabilities that the Gemini telescopes have that are highly complementary to those of Spitzer - a spatial resolution in the mid-IR that is 8 times finer than that of IRAC or MIPS at the same wavelength, and a spectral resolution of up to 40-50 times greater than IRS on Spitzer. The purpose of this special session is to present nine talks on scientific highlights of mid-IR observations of targets that include planets within our Solar System, proto-stellar and proto-planetary systems, and AGNs. The emphasis is on observations that have been made on the Gemini telescopes, with complementary data from Spitzer. We hope to encourage other astronomers to take advantage of the limited time left to utilize these complementary capabilities. In addition to the science talks there will be brief introductory talks on the mid-IR capabilities of Gemini (Scott Fisher) and on the great potential presented by the complementarity (Tom Soifer).

DATE TDB

CTIO Blanco Telescope Dark Energy Camera
The 0.5 Gpixel Dark Energy Camera is expected to be commissioned on the Blanco telescope in 2009. With a 2 degree diameter field and red- sensitive CCDs it will provide a major increase in capability over the present Mosaic Imager. The camera will come with SDSS g,r,i,z filters which will be used to carry out the Dark Energy Survey, this can be thought of as a "super Sloan" imaging survey of 5000 sq. degrees of the southern sky. In this meeting the capabilities of the camera and the data products resulting from the Dark Energy Survey will be briefly described. Community comment is sought: in particular input is desired on what additional filters should be provided, so that a priority list can be developed.

Accessing and Using Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data
Presentations of a few specific cases showing astronomers how to access data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, with questions and answers from Jordan Raddick and other members of the SDSS collaboration. The session will be similar to the session given at the summer meeting in Calgary.

Future of NASA Scientific Ballooning in Astronomical Research
Since the dawn of space science, scientific ballooning has been a key research tool and advances in the capability of ballooning can keep it at the forefront of research. Balloon payloads can incorporate cutting edge technologies that are not yet ready for a space mission. Balloon platforms provide a cost effective means to test and demonstrate these new technologies in a space environment. Ballooning has often been the pathfinder major space missions and made early results available years in advance. Balloon payloads have also been one of the most important training grounds for the next generation of instrumentalists. The purpose of this session is to update the community on new developments in the balloon program and seek input from the community on the future for this important community resource.

SESSIONS AND EVENTS