Dr. Christiaan Boersma, working with the Astrophysics & Astrochemistry Laboratory Group and a member of the NASA Ames PAH IR Spectroscopic Database Team, presented at The Large Volume Spectroscopic Analyses of AGN and Star Forming Galaxies in the Era of JWST workshop on the NASA Ames PAH IR Spectroscopic Database on April 1, 2022. The workshop website is located at www.stsci.edu/contents/events/stsci/2022/march/large-volume-spectroscopic-analyses-of-agn-and-star-forming-galaxies-in-the-era-of-jwst.

After connecting through Boys Scouts of America (soon to be Scouting America) at the Foothill College Observatory during one of their Friday Evening Public Viewing events hosted by the Peninsula Astronomical Society (PAS), Dr. Christiaan Boersma, working with the Astrophysics & Astrochemistry Laboratory Group and a member of the NASA Ames PAH IR Spectroscopic Database Team, was invited to provide a PAS public lecture at the Public Library of Los Altos. An engaging audience, some 25 in attendance in-person and 10 remotely, listened to a one-hour talk on the Astrochemistry behind some of the spectacular imagery being returned by the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST), with a focus on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). A historical overview of the development of the PAH hypothesis and how it was shaped into a full-fledged model was presented, highlighting Ames' pivotal and continuing role in astronomical PAH research. Data from the PDRs4All JWST Early Release Science Program on the Orion Bar and that from the JWST GO Cycle 1 program titled "Deuterated PAHs, PAH-nitriles, and PAH Overtone and Combination Bands" formed the high point of the evening.

Dr. Louis J. Allamandola, working with the Astrophysics & Astrochemistry Laboratory Group and a member of the NASA Ames PAH IR Spectroscopic Database Team, is the 2019 recipient of the PAC Research Award. This award is presented to a researcher who has made major contributions to research related to PACs (Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds). Specifically, Dr. Allamandola is being recognized for "having blazed a trail that furthers our understanding of PAHs in outer space, as such PAHs and Astrophysics is now one of the most dynamic study areas related to PAHs". The prize was presented to Dr. Allamandola during the 2019 International Symposium on Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds (ISPAC) held at Örebro University in Örebro, Sweden. Dr. Allamandola’s past honors include being named one of the 25 most influential people in space by TIME magazine and recipient of a Presidential Rank Award. His work currently focuses on preparing the data and tools necessary to analyze and interpret the PAH signatures to be observed by the James Webb Space Telescope, which is being supported through a NASA Directed Work Package titled: "Laboratory Astrophysics – The NASA Ames PAH IR Spectroscopic Database". The conference website is located at www.oru.se/english/schools/science-and-technology/conferenses/ispac-september-9-12-2019.

This video explores the content of the NASA Ames PAH IR Spectrsocopic Database website and is the first in a series of videos describing the website and its associated tools.

transcript

Dr. Alexandros Maragkoudakis and Dr. Christiaan Boersma, working with the Astrophysics & Astrochemistry Laboratory Group and a member of the NASA Ames PAH IR Spectroscopic Database Team, co-hosted JWebbinar 23 as core team members of the PDRs4All JWST Early Release Science program to describe and demonstrate the pyPAHdb software tool that the NASA Ames PAH IR Spectroscopic Database team developed to analyze and interpret JWST PAH spectra. Materials can be found at www.stsci.edu/jwst/science-execution/jwebbinars.