Aaron Price

Assistant Director

Aaron came to the AAVSO to take a break from the dotcom world. His time here rekindled his childhood love of astronomy and a short break in 1998 turned into a career change.

In 2011, Aaron earned a Ph.D. from the Tufts University Math, Science, Technology, and Engineering Education (MSTE) program [1]. His committee chairperson was Prof. Hee-Sun Lee [2]. Other committee members were Prof. Eric Chaisson [3], Prof. Danilo Marchesini [4], and Prof. Tim Slater [5] (U of Wyoming). He was affiliated with the Wright Center for Science Education [6] and participated in the Spatial Cognition Laboratory [7] run by Prof. Holly Taylor.

Research Interests

Publications (peer-reviewed)

Education Research

•   Price, A. & Lee, H-S. (submitted). Changes in Participants’ Scientific Attitudes and Epistemological Beliefs During an Astronomical Citizen Science Project, Journal of Research in Science Teaching.
•   Lee, H.-S., Liu, O. L., Price, C. A., & Kendall, A. (2011). College students' temporal magnitude recognition ability associated with durations of scientific changes. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 48(3), 317-335.
•   Price, A. & Lee, H. S. (2009). The effect of two-dimensional and stereoscopic presentation on middle school students’ performance of spatial cognition tasks. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 19, 9. (link [8])
•    Price, A., et al. (2009). The Astronomy Education Research Charter. Astronomy Education Review, 8, 3. (link [9])
•    Price, C. A. (2009). Astrobiology for Knowledge Transfer. In Meech, K. J., et al. (eds.) Bioastronomy 2007: Molecules, Microbes, and Extraterrestrial Life. San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific. (link [10])
•    Price, A. (2008) "Podcasting". In J. Pasachoff, R. M. Ros (eds.) Innovation in Astronomy Education. Cambridge: Cambridge Press. (link [11])
•    Price, A., Gay, P., Searle, T. and Brissenden, G. (2006). A history and informal assessment of the slacker astronomy podcast. Astronomy Education Review, 5(1), 53-69. (link [12])
•    Price, A., Cohen, L., Mattei, J. A., and Craig, N. (2006). A Needs Analysis Study of Amateur Astronomers For the National Virtual Observatory. Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers, 34, 251. (link [13])

Astronomy

•   Price, A., Masiero, J., Henden, A. H., et. al. (2009). Polarimetry and the long awaited superoutburst of BZ UMa. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 121, 885. (link [14])
•   Price, A., Henden, A. H., Foster, G., et al. (2007) SS Cygni outburst predictors and long term quasi-periodic behavior. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 119, 1361-1366. (link [15])
•   Price, A., et al. (2006). “Planetary Transits of the Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey Candidate TrES-1b”. Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers. 32, 29. (link [16])
•   Price, A. and Klingenberg, G. (2005). “Secular Evolution of Z Tau”. Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers. 32, 19. (link [17])
•  Price, A., Gary, B., Bedient, J., Cook, L., Templeton, M. et al. (2004) A new cataclysmic variable in Hercules. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 116, 1117-1122. (link [18])
•  Shankland, P. D., Rivera, E. J., Laughlin, G., Blank, D. L., Price, A., et al. (2006) On the Search for Transits of the Planets Orbiting Gliese 876. Astrophysical Journal, 653, 700. (link [19])
• Price, A., Vanmunster, T., Starkey, D., Boyd, D., Zissell, R., et al. (2004). Flickering and Periodic Activity in the 2004 Outburst of BZ UMa. International Bulletin of Variable Stars, 5526, 1. (link [20])
• Price, A., Cook, L., Vanmunster, T., Messier, D., Boyd, D, et al. (2003). Superhumps in the 2003 UV Per Superoutburst, International Bulletin of Variable Stars, 5488, 1. (link [21])
• Price, A.; Achee, C. G.; Aquino, B.; Beaver, D.; Broens, E., et al. (2003). GRB030329: Multicolor Light Curve and Ionospheric Detection, International Bulletin of Variable Stars, 5415, 1. (link [22])
• Price, A., Templeton, M. R., Mattei, J. A. (2003). A Revised Period for AY Aur, International Bulletin of Variable Stars, 5383, 1. (link [23])

Achievements

• PI of 2011 NSF Informal Science Education grant #1114645 (3 years, 660K) 
• Co-PI, principal author and project director of 2009 NSF Informal Science Education grant #0840188 (3 years, 790K)
• Co-PI of NSF Opportunities for Enhancing Diversity in the Geosciences grant #1108238 (2 years, 80K)
•   Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Student Award, 212th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (June, 2008)
•   Chair of the Citizen Science Working Group for the United States' activities in the 2009 International Year of Astronomy and member of the U. S. Program Committee. (2007-2009)
•   First Prize, 11th Annual Graduate Student Research Symposium at Tufts University (April, 2007)
•   Blue Ribbon Technical Award, 2nd National Virtual Observatory Summer School (September, 2005)
•   Creator of Slacker Astronomy [24] podcast and head writer for 2005-2007 (73 episodes and #9 on iTunes Top Science Podcasts). In this role, he was interviewed by BBC 5 "Live", NPR's Kojo Nnamdi Show and WGBH's Morning Stories.

More Info

• Video describing one of his stereoscopic projects with galaxies
  [25]
• Aaron's complete astronomical publication history via ADS [26]. (includes non-peer reviewed publications)