ACEAP Chile (English)

September 22, 2024
I am very excited and thrilled because I have been selected for the Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassadors Program - ACEAP 2025 (I will be part of a team of 10 ambassadors, mainly from the US).

Here we are the 10 selected ambassadors, 2024 cohort for the ACEAP 2025. https://www.astroambassadors.com/2024-ambassadors/

These selected ambassadors will attend a series of virtual meetings and online training to prepare them for the nine-day Chile expedition in the summer of 2025. The nine-day expedition trip includes a behind-the-scenes visit to the ALMA, CTIO, Gemini facilities in the Atacama desert, as well as visits to smaller tourist-community observatories. These visits will include discussions with observatory staff regarding the science and engineering work, and guidance on accessing observatory data archives for research and other purposes. Additionally, ambassadors will have an opportunity to get an understanding of the Chilean culture and the emerging astro-tourism industry. Weather permitting, nighttime observing opportunities are made available.

The Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassadors Program - ACEAP is a collaboration between Associated Universities Inc. (AUI)  and Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) , and the observatories they manage in Chile, including the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) and Gemini Observatory which are now part of the new NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NSF’s NOIRLab), and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and Atacama Large Millimeter-submillimeter Array (ALMA Observatory), and is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Program brings amateur astronomers, planetarium personnel, and K-16 formal and informal astronomy educators to US astronomy facilities in Chile. While at these facilities, ACEAP Ambassadors will receive extensive training about the instruments, the science, data products, and communicating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) concepts. When they return home, the Ambassadors share their experiences and observatory resources with schools and community groups across the US and abroad.

The main goals are:

- Inform amateur astronomers, planetarium personnel, and K-college astronomy educators about astronomy facilities in Chile, the nature of work being done by scientists and engineers at the facilities, and how they can access and use data being collected and other resources from these observatories.

- Create a core group of individuals (Ambassadors) who will broadly disseminate AUI, AURA, ALMA, NOIRLab and NRAO, information and resources to the general public and K–college learners.

Thank you to Yasmin Catricheo Villagran from Associated Universities Inc. (AUI) in Washington D.C. as the Sr. STEM Education Specialist.

Associated Universities Inc. (AUI) is a research management corporation that builds and operates facilities for the research community.

The member institutions of the corporation are Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, UPennsylvania, Princeton, URochester, and Yale.

The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) is a consortium of universities and other institutions that operates astronomical observatories and telescopes.

Founded 1957, with the encouragement of the National Science Foundation (NSF), AURA was incorporated by a group of seven U.S. universities: California, Chicago, Harvard, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio State, and Wisconsin. Today, AURA has 47 member institutions in the United States and 3 international affiliate members.

To be continued...