The University of North Texas had an impressive presence at this year's 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in Seattle, WA, which took place January 8-12, 2023. UNT Physics' students and faculty presented several talks and electronic posters, as well as advertised the department's new TEXAS Bridge Program, which is supported by the National Science Foundation.

"Our participation at the meeting this year is a testament to the growth and prominence of astrophysics in the UNT Physics Department," said Dr. Ohad Shemmer, Associate Professor of UNT Physics. Until about ten years ago, Dr. Shemmer had been the only UNT participant in the AAS.

"Our previous record of eight people in attendance was at the 235th meeting of the AAS in Honolulu in 2020," he said. "This year, after a three-year hiatus due to COVID, we broke the previous record and hosted nine people from UNT, with many more presentations."

Those in attendance included UNT faculty members Drs. Ohad Shemmer, Yuan Li, and Rebekah Purvis. They were joined by postdoctoral scholar Shalini Ganguly; graduate students Cooper Dix, Trung Ha, Andrea Marlar, and Brandon Matthews; and undergraduate Mirielle Caradonna. Some of the UNT research that was presented at the conference can be found in the links below:

Placing High-Redshift Quasars into Perspective: Unifying Distant Quasars with their Lower Redshift Counterparts through Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

Near-Infrared Spectroscopy of High Redshift Quasars: Bringing Distant Quasars into View

Monitoring AGNs with Hβ Asymmetry: 1ES0206+522

Turbulence Traced with Multiphase Filaments in the Centers of Galaxy Clusters

Turbulence in Milky Way Star-forming Regions Traced by Young Stars and Gas

Shedding New Light on Weak Emission-Line Quasars in the C IV - Hβ Parameter Space

The Effects of Winds on Accretion Disks and Spectra of X-Ray Binaries and Active Galactic Nuclei

The Bridge Program in UNT Physics is a new National Science Foundation PAARE program run between UNT and UTD to train post-baccalaureate, historically underserved students and prepare them for graduate school in astronomy. Find more information and apply at: http://physics.unt.edu/~yl0657/PAARE/bridge.html

The mission of the AAS is to enhance and share humanity's scientific understanding of the universe, which we achieve through publishing, meeting organization, advocacy, education and outreach, and training and professional development. Learn more about AAS by visiting: https://aas.org/

To learn more about the UNT Physics Department, visit: https://physics.unt.edu/