page_title: Amanda Bauer
section_title: Public outreach
hierarchical_section_title: Amanda Bauer / Public outreach
caption_attribution_description: English: Amanda Bauer (on ukele) and Fred Watson (on guitar) provide a musical interlude at "Science in the Pub", part of the StarFest celebrations on 3 October 2014 at Coonabarabran to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the AAT.
context_page_description: Amanda Elaine Bauer is an American professional astronomer and science communicator, currently based in Tucson, Arizona working as Head of Education and Public Outreach at the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. From 2013 to 2016 she was a Research Astronomer at the Australian Astronomical Observatory. Her principal field of research concerns how galaxies form, how they create new stars, and particularly why they suddenly stop creating new stars.
  She is better known to the public through her efforts in outreach and education.
context_section_description: Bauer started her involvement with organized public outreach in a project called Sixty Symbols of Physics and Astronomy during her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Nottingham in England.  She contributed regular interviews to this series from 2009 to 2011. After leaving Nottingham, she continued her outreach activities informally with her "Astropixie" blog.
  In 2013 while she was working at the AAO, in addition to her research role, Bauer became the first official Outreach Officer for the AAO.  The objective of this role is "to develop strategies to capture and communicate the excitement of new astronomical discoveries and innovative engineering feats occurring within the AAO and the astronomical community." She manages the AAO's online presence, especially social media using its Facebook, Twitter (@AAOastro)
  and YouTube channel, and the AAO's growing collection of online videos for the public. She also works with more conventional media by acting as the AAO's media contact and issuing press releases, edits the AAO Observer newsletter, gives public talks, writes science articles for several publications, visits schools, talks to members of parliament, and curated a public photographic exhibition. The importance of her outreach role became particularly apparent in January 2013 when bush-fires threatened the astronomical installations on top of Siding Spring mountain: Bauer was the media contact ensuring that the latest information was available.
  Since March 2012, Bauer has been a regular expert co-host on the Titanium Physicists Podcast.  In March 2017, she started a new podcast, Cosmic Vertigo with co-host Dr Alan Duffy.
  Bauer is a regular guest on ABC Radio and ABC News television, a guest writer for Australian Sky & Telescope magazine, guest writer and astronomy contact for Cosmos magazine, featured astrophysicist in video series Deep Sky Videos and Sixty Symbols of Physics and Astronomy. Her live presentations have been in front of the public, astronomical organizations and school groups, with audiences up to 350 people at the Australian Skeptics National Convention in November 2014.  She teaches the "Scientists in Schools" program for 8- to 12-year-old students, and "CAASTRO in the Classroom" astronomy lessons to about 100 students. In her spare time, she also maintains her own "astropixie" blog and Twitter feed about astronomy.
  She also takes an active role in helping other astronomers to develop their own skills in science communication, by conducting workshops and giving talks to professionals, including the ASA Harley Wood School in July 2014, the AAO Colloquium on Outreach in March 2014, and "dotAstronomy: Networked Astronomy and New Media" in Boston in September 2013. She is the Director of "dotAstronomy 7" which will be held in Sydney in November 2015.
  In 2014 the Astronomical Society of Australia acknowledged her contributions to public outreach by electing her to the Steering Committee of its Education and Public Outreach Chapter (EPOC) for a two-year term.
  In early 2017, Bauer moved back the US and joined the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope as Head of Education and Public Outreach.
caption: Amanda Bauer (on ukulele) and Fred Watson (on guitar) provide a musical interlude at the 2014 celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the AAT.
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