11 February 2019

NASA & NSF Virtual Town Halls Rescheduled from AAS 233

Ashlee Wilkins

Due to the partial federal government shutdown in January 2019, NASA employees were unable to hold a NASA Town Hall at the 233rd AAS meeting in Seattle. Similarly, NSF employees were unable to hold an in-person NSF Town Hall at the meeting, and our success in hosting a virtual town hall from Seattle was limited due to technical difficulties.

Town halls at AAS meetings provide important opportunities for agency leaders to deliver remarks to the community on the current status of projects and programs and to receive questions and feedback from the community. Accordingly, to make up for the lost opportunities in Seattle, the AAS will host virtual town halls as follows:

NASA logoNASA Astrophysics Division Virtual Town Hall

  • Tuesday, 12 February 2019, 12:00 pm ET
  • Watch the recording of the town hall at this link or download the mp4 file directly from here (the video is missing the first ~15 seconds of the town hall due to user error, we apologize!).
  • The slides (including extra materials) are available on the NASA Astrophysics Documents page.
  • Original AAS 233 abstract: “Senior representatives from NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and Astrophysics Division will discuss NASA’s science program and outlook. Topics will include highlights of operating missions, progress of missions in development and implementation, NASA’s planning for the 2020 Decadal Survey, the status of the research program, and anticipated opportunities for both non-flight basic research awards (grants) and flight mission investigations.”

NSF logoNSF Astronomical Sciences Division Virtual Town Hall

  • Friday, 15 February 2019, 12:00 pm ET
  • Watch the recording of the town hall at this link.
  • The slides (including extra materials) are available here.
  • Original AAS 233 abstract: “Personnel from the NSF Division of Astronomical Sciences will present recent highlights, the status of major facility and grants programs, the budget results from 2018 and outlook for 2019, and responses to recent community reports and advice.”

During both virtual town halls, viewers will be able to submit questions/comments through a chat function, and these will be addressed as time allows.

As soon as possible after the two virtual town halls occur, recordings of the two events will be available on this page.