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HELLENIC ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER
NUMBER 94 December 2005
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E-mail: elaset@astro.auth.gr WWW: http://www.astro.auth.gr/elaset
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TOPICS:
1. Short News
2. Greek National Committee for Astronomy
3. Next HelAS Astronomy Conference in Xanthi, Thrace.
4. Job opportunities with the ESA/Herschel mission
5. The 2005 ESA young Trainee Programm
6. Job oppening
7. Proceedings of JENAM 2005 Workshop on massive stars
8. Upcoming Astronomy meetings in Greece
9. About this Newsletter
1. SHORT NEWS
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We congratulate our member and former president of the HelAS Jiannis
Seiradakis who is a member of the PULSE team which received the Descartes
Research Prize. The PULSE group consisted of scientific teams from the
UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Greece and demonstrated the impact of
European pulsar science on modern physics. The 1,000,000 Euro Descartes
Research Prize was shared this year between five pan-European teams which
achieved major scientific breakthroughs in key European research areas.
The other four groups are : the EXCEL team for developing a new class of
artificial meta-materials, called Left-Handed Materials or Negative Index
Materials, which have the ability to overturn many familiar properties of
light, with participation from the Un.of Crete; the CECA team for
breakthrough findings on climate and environmental change in the Arctic;
the ESS project, European Social Survey, for radical innovations in cross-
national surveys; and the EURO-PID project for cutting-edge research on a
group of over 130 rare genetically determined diseases known as primary
immunodeficiencies.
We congratulate Dr. Ioannis A. Daglis who was elected by a 11
member committee of experts Director of the Institute for Space
Applications and Remote Sensing (ISARS) of the National Observatory
of Athens. The Director's position at ISARS is a 5-years term.
Also, we learned that Dr Daglis has been invited to become a member
of ESA's Solar System Working Group (SSWG) for a period of three
years (2006 to 2008). The SSWG together with the Astronomy Working
Group and the Fundamental Physics Advisory Group act as mediators
between the scientific community and ES and they are composed of
10-15 scientists with expertise in the specific discipline covered
by the group. The groups meet at the request of the Director of the
Scientific Programme and issue recommendations on the matters
submitted to them.
2. GREEK NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR ASTRONOMY
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Prof. I. Tsoukalas, the Secretary General for Research and
Technology, recently nominated the new council of the Greek National
Committee for Astronomy (GNCA), the official advisory panel to the
Government for matters relevant to Astronomical and Astrophysical
research. The composition of the new panel is:
Ordinary Members: P. Laskarides (Chair - Un. of Athens), T. Krimigis
(Vice Chair - Academy of Athens), I. Daglis (Nat. Obs. of Athens),
N. Kylafis (Un. of Crete), J.H. Seiradakis (Un. of Thessaloniki)
Substitute Members: S. Avgoloupis (Un. of Thessaloniki), E. Dara
(Academy of Athens), M. Kafatos (George Mason Un., USA), A. Nindos
(Un. of Ioannina), J. Papamastorakis (Un. of Crete)
3. NEXT HelAS ASTRONOMY CONFERENCE IN XANTHI, THRACE.
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The next HelAS Astronomy Conference will take place in in Xanthi,
Thrace. Fr George Anagnostopoulos accepted the proposition of the
HelAS President and governing Board to host the HelAs mtg in Xanthi
in the summer of 2007. More details will be announced in due time.
4. JOB OPPORTUNITIES WITH THE ESA/HERSCHEL MISSION
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The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced immediate openings
for a number of positions for software engineers, including
individuals with Greek citizenship, extensive experience in Java,
Jython/Python under the Unix environment for the upcoming Herschel
Space Observatory mission. Herschel, the fourth "cornerstone"
mission in the ESA science programme, will be launched in 2007 and
it will perform photometry and spectroscopy in the 57-670micron
range. It will have a radiatively cooled 3.5 m diameter telescope,
and a science payload of three instruments housed inside a
superfluid helium cryostat. The potential employees will be based at
the ESA center in Villafranca (Spain) for an expected period of at
least three years.
For more information on these possibilities visit:
http://www.astro.auth.gr/elaset/esa/herschel_iesl.pdf
or contact Prof. V. Charmandaris (vassilis@physics.uoc.gr).
5. THE 2005 ESA YOUNG TRAINEE PROGRAM
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ESAs Young Graduate Trainee (YGT) program offers recently graduated
men and women, nationals of ESA Member States, which includes Greece
a one-year non-renewable training contract designed to give valuable
work experience and to prepare for future employment in the space
industry and/or research.
Working in one of ESA's establishments offers the opportunity of
working in an exciting international and multicultural environment.
Young graduate training opportunities provide hands-on experience in
all ESA activities, but mainly those in the engineering and scientific
fields. On occasion, however, there are also opportunities in support
areas such as finance, contracts, public relations, human resources, etc.
Graduate trainees work as part of a team under the supervision of an
experienced specialist or mentor.
Applicants should have just completed, or be in their final year,
of a higher education course typically at Masters level and probably
in a technical or scientific discipline at a university or equivalent
institute. They should be fluent in either English or French, which
are the official languages of the Agency. Although applicants may have
some relevant work experience as an intern or maybe through summer
employment, in principle this should be their first full-time position.
The application deadline for this year is 15 December 2005. For more
information visit:
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Careers_at_ESA/SEMRS5XO4HD_0.html
and select the link on the top right of the page entitled "List of
YGT Training Opportunities"
6. JOB OPENNING
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A new tenure-track position at the level of "Assistant Professor"
or "Lecturer" in the field of "Astrophysics with emphasis on Plasma
Astrophysics of the Sun and the Interplanetary Medium" will soon be
opened at the Department of Physics of the University of Ioannina.
It is expected that the position will appear in the official gazette
within 2-4 months, and then the usual procedure will be
followed. Potential candidates may check out the official gazette's
webpage (www.et.gr) regularly. Once the application deadline is
known a new announcement concerning this position will be made.
7. PROCEEDINGS OF JENAM 2005 WORKSHOP ON MASSIVE STARS
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The final electronic version of the proceedings of the JENAM 2005
workshop on "Massive stars and high-energy emission in OB associations"
is now available on the web at the URL
http://www.astro.ulg.ac.be/RPub/Colloques/JENAM/proceedings/proceedings.html
8. UPCOMING ASTRONOMY MEETINGS IN GREECE
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The following meetings will take place in Greece. Please check the
corresponding web page or contact the organizers by e-mail for more
information.
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International Conference on Archaeoastronomy
Rhodes, 6-10 April 2006
More information can be found at:
http://www.rhodes.aegean.gr/tms/SEAC2006.htm
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"Galaxy Evolution with Spitzer and Herschel"
Agios Nikolaos, Crete, 28 May -2 June 2006
More information can be found at:
http://galev06.physics.uoc.gr
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9. ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER
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This Newsletter was edited by Vassilis Charmandaris and Kanaris
Tsinganos. It was forwarded to the 251, out of the 271, members of
Hel.A.S. who have e-mail access.
The next edition of the Newsletter will be mailed around January 1st
2006. Please send your announcements (e.g. appointments/departures,
job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece)
or comments before December 20, 2005. All correspondence concerning
the Newsletter should be addressed to:
tsingan@phys.uoa.gr
If you do not wish to receive future issues of this Newsletter or the
e-mail address to which it was sent is not your preferred one, please
let us know.
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