Stefan Kautsch, Ph.D., associate professor at the Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography, presented research and moderated a special session of the January 2016 meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS).
The meeting held January 4–8 in Kissimmee, Florida, drew 2,526 professional astronomers.
Kautsch presented two posters with new research results about disk galaxies and galaxy morphology. The research included NSU student participation and collaboration with Victor Castro, Ph.D., associate professor at the college, and Michael Van Hilst, Ph.D., associate professor at NSU’s College of Engineering and Computing. Van Hilst also attended the conference and presented a poster with Kautsch.
With experience and expertise in astrophysical research, Kautsch was asked to moderate an oral special session about galaxy types. Among those attending the session was scientist Michael Merrifield, Ph.D., professor at the University of Nottingham (United Kingdom) who is frequently featured on the YouTube channel Sixty Symbols.
Kautsch also attended the Kavli Foundation lecture of Alan Stern, Ph.D., the planetary scientist and winner of the 2016 Carl Sagan Memorial Award who flew the first robotic spaceship, New Horizons, to dwarf planet Pluto.
“I met many great scientists,” Kautsch said, adding that “this was a great opportunity to display my research to a wide audience and receive feedback…and for NSU to receive broad visibility in the professional astronomy community and to network for potential future collaboration in education and scholarship.”