This workshop for science journalists, presented by STScI, will provide an overview of the broad range of survey science enabled by the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. A panel of prominent astronomers will speak on a variety of topics, including: the synergies between the Roman Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope, science from our solar system to the edge of the observable universe, and time domain astronomy.

Registration fees for members of accredited media outlets will be waived. In alignment with the Roman Science Inspired by Emerging JWST Results conference, this workshop will be offered in-person and online.

Date: Wednesday, June 21, 2023
Time: 3:30 - 5:00 pm EDT

Download the writer's workshop agenda 

Download the writer's workshop media flyer

In coordination with the science conference "Roman Science Inspired by Emerging JWST Results", we present two special guest speakers discussing the history and science of the Roman Space Telescope on Thursday, June 22, 2023 at 4:30pm EST.

Joan Gordon, Ph.D., will discuss “The Personal Side of Dr. Nancy Grace Roman”. She will provide insights into the remarkable life of the Roman mission’s namesake, who was NASA’s first Chief of Astronomy and is known as “The Mother of Hubble”. Dr. Rachael Beaton will follow with a discussion of the Roman Space Telescope mission. She will detail how this wide-field and high-resolution observatory will achieve breakthrough science.

Lectures on a diverse selection of cosmic topics are held every month and webcast to the Hubble Space Telescope Channel on YouTube.

Learn more about the Space Telescope Public Lecture Series.

Please see the information below to learn more about presenting at the Roman 2023 Conference.

All files related to presentations for the conference can be uploaded using this link. Please rename the file to include your last name, the session you're presenting in, and the type of presentation. Below are a few examples:

• hoffmann-session5-contributed.pptx
• beaton_poster.pdf
• mutchler-writers-workshop.key
• Petric_Session3_InvitedTalk_BackupRecording.mp4

Speaker Information

For invited talks, the length of time will be 25 minutes for the presentation and 5 minutes for questions and answers for a total of 30 minutes. For contributed talks, the length is 10 plus 5 minutes for a total of 15. This is true for both in-person and virtual speakers.

All presentation materials need to be submitted by 5pm ET the day before your talk, for both in-person and virtual attendees. For a talk on the first day of the conference (Tuesday June 20th), presentations are due by 5pm ET on Monday June 19th. For the second day of the conference, the presentations are due by 5pm ET on Tuesday June 20th, and so on.

In-person

All in-person presentation materials (PowerPoint, Keynote, or PDF) will be downloaded to and displayed from a common Mac laptop in the auditorium so that speakers do not need to connect their own personal computers. The presentations will be recorded and streamed to the public on youtube. Clip on microphones will be used for presentations. Tech support will be available by the session moderators and the STScI IT department.

Virtual

For virtual speakers, the conference will use the bluejeans meetings application. Here are some practices that help make for better virtual presentations:

• It is required that virtual speakers download the bluejeans app instead of using the browser capabilities.
• Virtual speakers need a stable internet connection. Use a hard wired connection if possible.
• Use headsets instead of laptop microphones if available as they pick up less ambient noise.
• Ensure that you are looking into the correct camera as many people have multiple screens at their workstations. 
• Please take a moment to ensure that nothing distracting or busy is in the background and that you are well lit and visible to the camera.
• Run your presentation off of your local drive instead of a hosting service like GoogleDrive or Box, a remote server, or a thumb-drive or other external device. This will prevent network lags and delays.
• Close other running applications on your computer during your presentation. These can take up system resources and slow down your computer during your presentation.

Also virtual speakers are required to attend one of the pre-conference sessions on 4pm ET on Wednesday June 14th or 9am ET on Thursday June 15th to test your computer system and familiarize yourself with how to present virtually in bluejeans. Please note that it’s unlikely you’ll need to be there for the full hour. Local Organizing Committee members will be available to answer questions, along with tech support from the STScI IT department. If these sessions don’t work for your schedule please an email to RomanConference2023@stsci.edu to set up a separate 5 min session to exercise bluejeans and share your presentation.

Please upload your slides by 5pm ET the day before your presentation. While the current plan is to have virtual speakers share and control their own slides, the files are required in case of technical difficulties. If you are making a recording of your talk, either as a backup or due to time zone conflicts, you can use the same link to upload your recording. Please note that there is a maximum file size of 150 GB and that your slides must still be uploaded in addition to the recording.
 

E-poster Information

All e-posters need to be submitted by Wednesday, June 14th at 5pm. Please upload a PDF version of your poster in addition to whatever file type you prefer (PPTX, KEY, PDF).

For e-poster presenters, there will be many opportunities to share your work. E-poster presenters will be able to sign up for lightning talks in the auditorium once slack is available to attendees, and they can discuss their work with other attendees during the dedicated poster sessions and coffee breaks and on slack. The posters will be combined into a slide deck and shown in the auditorium during breaks for more exposure. Additionally, some presentation screens will have the posters scrolling through during the poster sessions, with the capability of pausing to discuss a given poster, as well as some IPads to facilitate discussion.

It is recommended that the technical specifications of the e-posters match what is provided for talks as the e-posters will be displayed on the main auditorium screen. This is different than a typical printed poster size, so please review the technical specifications below. 

Additionally, for poster presenters interested in lightning talks, it is recommended that a simplified slide be created with a single main figure or plot and a very short summary of the poster to use during the lightning talk and to share on slack.
 

Tips to Reach Everyone in the Audience

Please review these checklist items and consider how every speaker can learn new tricks to make a presentation that will reach everyone in the audience. These tips were adapted from the Inclusive Astronomy 2 Presenter Information.

Checklist for making presentations (talks or posters)

• Use an easy-to-read font face. Serif fonts and fancy fonts where parts of the letters are thinner or embellished are more difficult to read, especially at a distance. Avoid italics for the same reason and use bold for emphasis.
• Size texts and visuals bold/large so they can be read the back of the room. This includes labels and axes on all plots.
• Use a high-contrast color theme so text is easily distinguished from background or stylistic graphical elements.
  • Paul Tol's Notes on Color Schemes and Templates
  • Color contrast resources from W3C
• Choose colors that are accessible to those with color blindness, especially for figures.  
  • Color Oracle: tool to simulate color blindness with full screen color filter
  • Coblis color blindness simulator for images and figures
• Plan to caption/subtitle any video or have transcripts available.
• Make your presentation accessible for people who use screen readers by
  • Adding text and/or alt-text descriptions for any image or figure.
  • Using the slide templates instead of adding random text boxes or shapes. Check with the outline view as described in this WiA Universal Design presentation.
  • Setting the read order for screen readers as detailed in this accessibility guide for Microsoft Powerpoint from the University of Washington.
• Ensure any handouts are also accessible. Offer digital and large print options. 

Additional items for making posters

• If your poster is printed, include a QR code that links to a digital copy of your poster. Keynote/Powerpoint are more accessible formats than PDF.
• Do not overcrowd the poster with too much material. 
• Make sure the text has enough space between lines. 

Checklist for speaking during presentations

• Always speak into the microphone. Yes, even if you’re naturally loud. Repeat audience questions if they’re not asked into a microphone. 
• When speaking, position your face at an angle that allows participants to read your lips. Avoid speaking while facing away from the audience, or while looking down at papers or screens.
• Describe any visuals. All onscreen textual information should also be spoken. 
• Give people time to process information by including pauses between information.
• Be conscious of your word choice and avoid ableist language. For more information, please see this article on linguistic ableism and the corresponding glossary of ableist terms by Autistic Hoya.

Technical Specifications

Please review the technical specifications for presentation materials below prior to submitting your presentation materials.

• All presentation materials will be presented on a common Mac laptop in the auditorium. As such, only Keynote, PowerPoint, and PDF slides will be accepted.
• The preferred aspect ratio for slides is 16:9. This is the wide screen view as opposed to 4:3. The wide screen view will fill up the Auditorium screen, while the 4:3 ratio will leave a lot of white space on the slides.
• For those interested, the auditorium set up will have the capability for audio and video materials. However, it is best not to rely on them too heavily as there can be technical issues, especially for virtual attendees.
• The virtual attendees and streaming viewers will see the slides and an inset camera focus on the speaker. This inset will cover the upper left hand corner, so please avoid placing important information in that area. A demonstration of that is shown below.

Please submit all your presentation materials at this link. All files must be below 150 GB.
 

Office Hours

The Local Organizing Committee will hold office hours the week before the conference at 4pm ET on Wednesday June 14th and 9am ET on Thursday June 15th. All virtual presenters are required to join one of these sessions. Each presenter will be able to ensure they can enter the bluejeans meeting, validate that their system has the correct permissions to share their presentation, and practice clicking through their presentation.

If you cannot make one of these sessions, please reach out to the conference organizers (RomanConference2023@stsci.edu) to schedule a separate practice time.
 

Other Questions

For any other questions not answered here, please contact the conference organizers.

Please use this form to submit your Roman 2023 Conference abstract. The abstract submission deadline for talks is March 17th, and the deadline for posters is April 21st.

All abstracts will be reviewed by the Science Organizing Committee. Posters and slides will be hosted on the conference website after they are presented at the conference.

Abstract submissions are now closed.

Virtual registration is still open! In-person registration is now closed.

Registration opens on March 17, 2023. Please use the registration button on this page above to register.

Types of registration:

• In-person regular registration - $195
• In-person student registration - $75
• Virtual registration - $30

In-person registration includes lunches, coffee and snacks during breaks, a conference reception with refreshments, and access to all conference events.

Virtual registration includes access to the conference slack and all hybrid conference events. It also provides the ability to present remotely, ask questions, and participate in hybrid discussions.

A free streaming option will be available for those who only wish to view the event and does not require registration.

• Andreea Petric, Co-Chair (STScI)
• Brian Holler (STScI)
• Daniella Bardalez Gagliuffi (Amherst College, American Museum of Natural History)
• Feige Wang (University of Arizona, Steward Observatory)
• Karrie Gilbert (STScI)
• Ori Fox (STScI)
• Rachael Beaton, Co-Chair (STScI)
• Shoubaneh Hemmati (Infrared Processing & Analysis Center, CalTech)
• Steve Finklestein (University of Texas at Austin)
• Tuan Do (University of California, Los Angeles)

• Cristina Oliveira (STScI)
• Gisella de Rosa (STScI)
• Max Mutchler, Co-Chair (STScI)
• Samantha Hoffmann, Co-Chair (STScI)
• Shemiah Smith, Coordinator (STScI)
• Sherita Hanna, Coordinator (STScI)
• Thomas Marufu, IT Support (STScI)

Surveying the Solar System

• Rosemary Pike (CfA, Minor Planet Center)

Surveys within the Milky Way

• Samuel Grunblatt (Johns Hopkins University)
• Nitya Kallivayalil (University of Virginia)

Resolved Studies of Nearby Galaxies

• Myung Gyoon Lee (Seoul National University)

Galaxy Surveys at Low to Medium Redshift

• Vivian U (UC Irvine)

Galaxy Surveys at High Redshift

• Micaela Bagley (UT Austin)
• Jasleen Matharu (Cosmic Dawn Center/Copenhagen)
• Jinyi Yang (University of Arizona/Steward)

Cosmology and Large Scale Structure

• Ami Choi (Goddard Space Flight Center)

Surveys in the Time Domain

• Patrick Kelly (University of Minnesota)

New Policy as of June 8, 2023

Recent changes in the state and federal policies regarding mask requirements impact our ability to require in-person participants to wear masks. While strongly recommended, attendees are no longer required to wear masks.

Although we are unable to enforce a masking policy that differs from the current guidelines set by AURA/STScI, we want to assure attendees that your well-being and safety remain our top priority. We recognize that many have made travel arrangements and decisions based on the initial policy, taking into consideration factors such as disabilities, compromised immune systems, and other personal circumstances. We want to emphasize that we respect and value the diverse needs of our community, and we want everyone to feel welcome and protected during the conference.

Although masks are not required, we strongly encourage all attendees to consider wearing masks as a means of safeguarding their own health and the well-being of their colleagues. We will have masks available at the conference venue for your convenience, making it easier for those who choose to utilize them. By wearing a mask, you not only demonstrate your commitment to protecting yourself but also show support for those who may have concerns or underlying health conditions. We aim to foster an inclusive and supportive environment where everyone feels comfortable participating in the conference activities.

AURA affirms its commitment to ensure an environment of the highest professional and ethical standards of conduct.  All employees, vendors, participants in AURA programs and activities, and visitors to its centers and facilities are covered by these standards and are expected to comply with AURA’s Standards of Workplace Conduct and to take appropriate measures to ensure that their conduct reflects our values of civility, respect and inclusiveness and that prohibited conduct does not occur. 

Please review with AURA's Standards of Workplace Conduct Policy and STScI's Invision Group's Ground Rules for Respectful Discussions prior to the conference.

A block of rooms has been reserved at the Inn at the Colonnade Baltimore – a Doubletree by Hilton Hotel located within walking distance to STScI.

Inn at the Colonnade Baltimore – a Doubletree by Hilton Hotel
4 West University Parkway
Baltimore, MD 21218

Phone: 410-235-5400
Room Rate: $169 USD per night plus taxes
Cut-Off Date: Monday, May 24, 2023

A block of rooms has been reserved at Delta Hotels by Marriot Baltimore North.

Delta Hotels by Marriot Baltimore North
5100 Falls Road
Baltimore, MD 21210

Phone: 410-532-6900
Room Rate: $151 USD per night plus taxes
Cut-Off Date: Monday, May 24, 2023

If you have any questions about the accessibility resources listed below, please contact the conference organizers at RomanConference2023@stsci.edu. Accommodation information will be collected during registration. This resource builds upon the precedent set by WisCon and their excellent Accessibility Policies as well as the STScI specific resources captured for Inclusive Astronomy 2.

Accessibility Resources

Live Captioning

Live captioning will be available for all conference science programming in the Bahcall Auditorium in the Muller building at STScI where the conference will take place.

Listening

Electronic Hearing Assistive Devices are available in the Bahcall Auditorium with advance request.

STScI Without Steps

Space Telescope Science Institute meets ADA guidelines. There are curb cuts in all the sidewalks near the Muller building.

The entrance to the Muller building is accessible: there is a ramp and there are power door openers to open the pair of glass doors. 

There are several wheelchair parking areas in the auditorium, so you can stay in your wheelchair or scooter if you prefer.

All the conference events will take place on the main floor of the Muller building so there is no need for stairs to access the conference spaces. Elevators are available for those who plan to tour or visit other floors of the building.

There is long-term, accessible parking available in the parking area directly in front of the Muller building on San Martin Drive. 

Below is a map of the area surrounding the Muller building, including accessible parking.

All-Gender and Accessible Bathrooms

The public, gendered bathrooms near the Bahcall Auditorium will be reassigned to have all-gender options available for the duration of the conference. These facilities have accessible stalls available.

Service Animals

Service dogs are allowed in the Institute's Muller building as long as they are properly identified and tagged and on a leash at all times. The conference hotel (Doubletree Inn at the Colonnade) also permits service animals, but you should contact the hotel directly in advance to make arrangements. Please contact the conference organizers at RomanConference2023@stsci.edu if you are bringing a service animal.

Breathing

For some attendees, fragrances trigger asthma, migraine, or illness. While some do need fragrance to manage pain and mood, please limit or leave scented products at home if you can do so without detriment to your own health. KN95 masks will be available at the front desk for those who react strongly to fragrances, dust, and particulates.

Wellness Room

For attendees who are nursing, please indicate any need for a wellness room or refrigeration in the registration form, and conference organizers will work with you to make sure you have access to the facilities you need.
 

Allies: How Everyone Contributes to an Accessible Institute

We all learn contradictory messages from society about people with disabilities. Together, we can create a more accessible Institute by paying attention to our own behavior and attitudes.

• Beneficial behaviors for Presentations: Closer to the conference dates, conference organizers will provide information and resources on how to make your presentation or poster more accessible. Please check back at a later date!
• Maintain clear paths. STScI provides fantastic opportunities to talk, but clogged doorways and hallways make navigation time-consuming for all, and impossible for some of us. Tuck your belongings in front of your feet or under your seat. Remind members gathered in doorways or hallways of the need to share the limited space so all of us can move freely.
• Respect Accessible Seating. Please don't stand or block the wheelchair parking areas at the front of the auditorium. The seats marked as accessible seating in the auditorium are reserved for attendees who need seats in specific areas of the auditorium (at the front or back, near the exits). Please avoid these seats if you can sit in other seats of the auditorium without difficulty.
• Share the air. Smoke and scents travel quickly. We ask that you limit your use of scented products if you can do so without negatively affecting your health. Fewer fragrances, vapors, and particulates make the Institute a place those of us with asthma, migraine, and chemical sensitivities can attend. The campus is completely non-smoking, and we ask that smokers use the dedicated outdoor smoking areas. Washing your hands after smoking makes a difference.
• Service Animal Etiquette. Although interacting with animals is tempting, please don’t pet, distract, or take photos of service animals at STScI. Those who rely on service animals need their animals to be able to concentrate on doing their jobs well. We would also like to talk to you about science, inclusion or other topics, rather than our service animal.
• Offer help — don’t assume it’s needed. Many of us are taught to “help the handicapped,” but not “does this person want or need help?” If you think someone needs assistance, just ask. If they say yes, don’t make assumptions; instead listen to the details of what the person with disabilities wants. If they say “no thanks,” don’t be offended. What might look overly complicated or inefficient can be what that disabled person finds works best.
• Speak up! You don’t need to have a disability to advocate for access. If you see barriers, feel free to suggest how to clear them — whether this means talking respectfully to other attendees, or contacting a LOC member.
• Don’t assume people with disabilities want or need fixing. Attendees with disabilities are here for the same reasons non-disabled members are. Talking about an interesting new paper, a proposal idea you have, or a new software tool you discovered, are much better conversation starters than bringing up an attendee's disability.
• Privacy. People are often curious about the details of a visible disability. An attendee's medical history and details of how their body functions is private. Please do not ask how someone became disabled or assume their experience is the same as another person with a similar disability.