Collaborative Research: Accessing the dark Arizona skies for research and education, a NCAT-BU partnership

A new partnership will be developed between North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NCAT), a research-active Historically Black College or University (HBCU), and Boston University (BU), a university with institutional access to large, research-grade telescopes. The partnership has three key goals: enhancing astronomy research and education at NCAT by providing access to research-grade telescopes; raising the visibility of astronomy as a career at NCAT and at high schools, colleges, and universities in the area; and increasing the number of minoritized students pursuing graduate degrees in astronomy and astrophysics, including at NCAT and at BU. The program will offer summer undergraduate internship opportunities at BU for NCAT students, designed to promote scientific advancement and career training simultaneously, while improving student competitiveness for admission to graduate programs. They will conduct pre- and post-project assessments to measure how well the goals are met and the impact of the programs in the lives of the students involved. Scientifically, the partnership will build long-term research collaborations among faculty at NCAT and BU. Researchers at the partner institutions study a wide range of phenomena, including exoplanets, galactic magnetic fields, and active galactic nuclei and blazars. However, NCAT lacks institutional access to research-grade telescopes in dark sky locations. Boston University owns the 1.8m Perkins Telescope Observatory and has access to observing nights on the 4.3m Lowell Discovery Telescope. By combining resources, the partnership will be the engine that produces scientific journal articles as well as scientific and public talks, many led by students from both institutions. The partnership will enhance educational opportunities of NCAT students through hands-on experience obtaining and analyzing data from research-grade telescopes, provide NCAT students access to summer research opportunities at BU, and create pathways for students to pursue graduate studies in astronomy and subsequent leadership positions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.