Notes for Visitors

We look forward to your visit! The Institute is a very lively place with many opportunities for scientific collaboration. Here are a few tips to help you with your visit:

1.Location: STScI is located at 3700 San Martin Dr., just behind the Johns Hopkins Homewood Campus. It is easily accessible by walking, public bus, car, or taxi. If you are driving, to park you should go to the front desk first (park in the circle just by the front entrance), and ask them for a parking pass along with your visitor card - they’ll tell you exactly where to go. From there, STScI is a short walk up San Martin Drive. We will provide you with a prepaid parking ticket to exit the garage and the end of the day. Note the parking garage directly across from STScI is reserved for employees. You can get the prepaid ticket at the front desk after you park and arrive.

2.Host: To make sure you're well looked after during your visit, we want to make sure you have a host

3.Talk time and length: Galaxy club is an hour long, from 12-1pm, but half the time is either for discussing astro-ph papers or a second speaker. You should aim for ~30 minutes, including questions.

4.Audience and location: The Institute has approximately 700 employees, of which about 150 or so are PhD scientists. The rest are primarily a mix of postdocs, administrative staff, engineers, and software developers. The typical galaxy club audience has 15-30 people, so the atmosphere is informal. The audience tends to be a mix of JHU and STScI staff scientists and postdocs, with some graduate students. Galaxy club talks are in the Cafecon, a conference room off of Cafe Azafran; many audience members eat lunch during galaxy club.

5.Talk Titles and Abstracts: By one week before your visit, please send your host a talk title and abstract. Because the Institute is such a busy place, in any given week there are at least 3-5 talks. If you are looking for more than a few people to attend, a pithy and catchy title is a must to rise above the general noise of seminars, talks, and meetings each person at the Institute faces each week. The added bonus of a simple title is that you may also draw some non-specialists to your talk!

6.Meeting with People: Since you will probably be here for the day, please consider who you might want to meet with, as with point 3 many people are busy so if you single them out, you will have better success at scheduling a meeting with someone. A staff directory with descriptions of people's research is here, although this list can be out of date. Don't hesitate to ask your host for suggestions. Of course, it is possible that after your talk people might be interested in talking with you further. If you could make a doodle schedule (or google sheet like this), we will circulate it in our mailing list so people who are interested can sign up for meeting with you.

7.Presentation Style: STScI has high resolution projectors and the appropriate connections for your laptop/iPad/tablet, as well as a streaming system to broadcast your talk to other STScI staff who may not be able to attend in person. As with any presentation, a clear style can better convey your message!

8.Coordinate with Other Institutions! Carnegie-DTM, University of Maryland, and Goddard all have seminars and talks with a similar focus are within an hour drive/train ride from STScI. Please consider contacting them as well to make your visit more efficient.