IDAstro: Astronomical Research and Scholarship in the Gem State

A collaboration of Idaho colleges and universities will establish a new partnership, the IDAstro program, to improve access for students to astronomy research in the State of Idaho. This program builds on the incipient connections between the astronomical research and education programs at each of the partner institutions and provides much needed support to Idaho students with the passion, but not necessarily the means to study astronomy. The primary partners are Boise State University, a “high research activity” (R2) university; College of Idaho, a private liberal arts college; and College of Western Idaho, a comprehensive community college. Other partners that will contribute to the collaboration are the College of Southern Idaho, a federally designated Hispanic Serving Institution, and Idaho’s Dept. of Parks and Recreation’s Bruneau Dunes State Park. The program will pilot a substantive and sustainable partnership across Idaho to provide personalized mentoring, financial, and academic support for students most in need. The program will support multiple interwoven research programs, with a focus on utilizing the newly built observatory at Bruneau Dunes State Park, and will provide student researchers robust support for their work. Research topics will include exoplanet transit photometry and transit timing, photometric variability of energetic transients including Active Galactic Nuclei and Be stars, galactic star formation, and small-body (e.g., asteroid) occultations. The IDAstro program will provide a novel pathway for Idaho’s community college students to become involved in research early in their education and then continue this research involvement at a four-year institution. Some 40+% of students in Idaho are first-generation college students, many of whom come from disadvantaged and minority backgrounds. Students would have opportunities to conduct not only astronomical observations, but also public outreach and utilize a recently built, cutting-edge astronomical observatory at the Bruneau Dunes State Park. 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.