FEBRUARY 2009 - TOPICS

Short News Message of the President of Hel.A.S. on the IYA2009 Meeting of the Governing Council of Hel.A.S. Greek Astronomers Yearbook Job Openings Graduate Studies in Astrophysics in Crete for 2009-2010 PhD and Postdoc Positions on the Physics of Black Holes Call for Expression of Interest for ESA GSTP-5 Summer Undergraduate Internships at CfA/Harvard Space Astronomy Summer Program at STScI EURO-VO AIDA School 2009 - 2nd Announcement Upcoming Astronomy Meetings in Greece About this Newsletter

1. SHORT NEWS

We would like to congratulate Dr. Alceste Bonanos, Giacconi Fellow at the Space Telescope Science Institute (USA), who was recently elected as Researcher D, at the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the Observatory of Athens. The American Astronomical Society has awarded the 2009 Joseph Weber Award, for major contributions to astronomical instrumentation to Dr. Peter Serlemitsos of NASA/GSFC. The two most notable contributions of Dr. Serlemitsos, who left Greece for the US after high-school, are the multiwire gas proportional counter, and lightweight, high throughput X-ray optics. His proportional counter work led to successful experiments on OSO8, HEAO1, and RXTE, making possible numerous discoveries about black holes, neutron stars, and the X-ray background. His X-ray optics have flown on BBXRT, ASCA, and Suzaku, facilitating high throughput, broad band, spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy.

2. MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT OF HEL.A.S. ON THE IYA 2009

As we all know, the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009) is a global effort initiated by the International Astronomical Union and Unesco to help the citizens of the world rediscover their place in the Universe through the day- and night-time sky, and thereby engage a personal sense of wonder and discovery. IYA2009 activities will take place locally, nationally, regionally and internationally. The President of the Hellenic Astronomical Society, Prof. Kanaris Tsinganos, would like to issue the following message to all members of the Society regarding the activities the Society is planning to organize in Greece: http://www.helas.gr/events/iya2009_president.pdf Activity #3 presented in the above document, which is a series of 10 talks for the general public covering all topics of modern astronomy, will take place over a three day period on May 15-17 2009 at the central building of the University of Athens at Propylaia. A detailed program on this will be presented in the near future.

3. MEETING OF THE GOVERNING COUNCIL OF HEL.A.S.

On December 5th 2008 the Governing Council (GC) of HelAS held via teleconference a meeting to discuss various issues related to organizational matters as well as upcoming activities of the Society. All members are strongly encouraged to read the minutes of this GC meeting which are available online at: http://www.helas.gr/events/GC_05Dec08.pdf

4. GREEK ASTRONOMERS YEARBOOK

As most of us know, the "Greek Astronomers Yearbook", edited by Prof. P. Laskarides, contains brief biographical information on most professional astronomers of greek descent of the past 50 years. An early version of the yearbook was published in 1992 and its last formal online update was in 2005, which is currently available at: http://www.helas.gr/forms/YEARBOOK_2005.pdf With the occasion of the 2009 International Year of Astronomy the Hellenic Astronomical Society plans to produce a new version of the Yearbook which will be distributed to all HelAS members during the 9th Hellenic Astronomical Conference. All members of HelAS are strongly encouraged to review the current version of the yearbook and send by e-mail all corrections they have on their record (possibly including a more up-to-date picture!) to Prof. Laskarides at plaskar@phys.uoa.gr. The deadline for all corrections is March 31st 2009. Furthermore, please suggest to other greek professional astronomers who are not listed in the current PDF version of the yearbook, possibly because they have obtained their PhD recently, to provide their information in order for them to be included in the new version.

5. JOB OPENINGS

A new position at the level of "Assistant Professor" or "Lecturer" in the field of "Theoretical Astrophysics" has opened at the Department of Physics of the University of Athens (F.E.K. 1168/30-12-2008, page 9579). The application deadline is unknown for the moment but it will be announced online, as well as in the next e-newsletter. For more information contact the Secretariat of the Department Mrs Eleni Tsalka, phone: +30 210 727 6807. A position at the level of "Professor" in the field of "Space Physics" has opened at the Department of Physics of the University of Athens (F.E.K. 1192/31-12-2008, page 9776). The application deadline is unknown for the moment but it will be announced online, as well as in the next e-newsletter. For more information contact the Secretariat of the Department Mrs Eleni Tsalka, phone: +30 210 727 6807.

6. GRADUATE STUDIES IN ASTROPHYSICS IN CRETE FOR 2009-2010

The Department of Physics of the Univ. of Crete, in collaboration with the Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH) is issuing a Call for Applications for the 2009-2010 Graduate Program in "Advanced Physics". There is a possibility of a number of graduate fellowships towards a 1-year Master's Program in "Astrophysics & Space Physics", as well as towards a 3-year PhD Program in Theoretical or Observational Astrophysics. The Astrophysics Group in Crete would like to encourage all interested undergraduate and Masters' students to consider the possibilities the Department of Physics and FORTH have to offer. For more information on the Astrophysics Graduate Program in Crete please check the following [PDF file]. The deadline for early application is March 15, 2009 while the final application deadline is July 15, 2009. For details about the overall program as well as application material you may visit the Crete Physics Graduate Program web page at: http://gradstudy.physics.uoc.gr/

7. PHD AND POSTDOC POSITIONS ON THE PHYSICS OF BLACK HOLES

A total of 10 PhD student positions and 2 postdoc positions are currently available under the recently funded EU Initial Training Network "Black Hole Universe". The Black Hole Universe consortium is made up of seven leading astronomy institutions across Europe. The network aims to reveal many of the hidden aspects of black holes and their impact on the universe. The main scientific focus is on X-ray binary systems which contain the black hole remnant of a massive star orbiting a normal stellar companion and feeding from it through accretion. For more information on the projects participating institutes and application proccedures visit: http://www.black-hole.eu

8. CALL FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FOR EAS GSTP-5

The European Space Agency (ESA) has issued a call for expression of interest to the next General Support Technology Program (GSTP). The Initial Work Plan consisting of a list of key GSTP-5 items that are proposed for subscription and initiation in 2009 as part of the proposal for the 5th Period of GSTP. In order to better organize potential greek partipation the General Secretariat for Research and Technology is requesting all interested parties to contact Mr. V. Kaleridis (phone: 2107458190, e-mail: vkas@gsrt.gr). For more information visit: http://www.gsrt.gr/default.asp?V_ITEM_ID=5985

9. SUMMER UNDEGRADUATE INTERNSHIPS AT CfA/HARVARD

In the Summer of 2009 scientists from the Solar and Stellar X-Ray Group (SSXG) and the Solar, Stellar, and Planetary Group (SSP) at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) will host undergraduate students from around the US and the world. For 10 weeks these students will participate in cutting edge research with scientific mentors and learn the skills necessary for a successful scientific career. Special seminars will be held to increase students' public speaking and computer programming skills, and students will learn from experience about scientific research and how to apply their academic work to real-world problems. Participants must be full-time undergraduate students, preferably finishing their sophomore or junior years (2nd or 3rd year in Greece). Applications from traditionally underrepresented groups are encouraged. Foreign participants are welcomed and supported from non-NSF sources. The application deadline is February 15, 2009. For more information visit: http://helio.cfa.harvard.edu/REU

10. SPACE ASTRONOMY SUMMER PROGRAM AT STScI

The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) announces an opportunity for highly motivated college undergraduates to participate in its Summer Student Program. The program will run ten weeks, starting either on June 6th or on June 22nd, 2009. Foreign students are welcome to apply. Students will be paid a stipend of approximately $500 per week. STScI is located on the Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus in Baltimore, Maryland, and is responsible for the scientific operations of the Hubble Space Telescope for NASA. The application deadline is February 20, 2009. For more information please visit: http://www.stsci.edu/institute/sd/students

11. EURO-VO AIDA SCHOOL

The Virtual Observatory (VO) is opening up new ways of exploiting the huge amount of data provided by the ever-growing number of ground-based and space facilities, as well as by computer simulations. The EURO-VO project, in the framework of the Astronomical Infrastructure for Data Access (AIDA), is organizing an international School at ESO, Garching bei München, Germany, on 30 March - 2 April 2009. The goals of the School are to expose European astronomers to the variety of VO tools and services available today so that they can use them efficiently for their own research. For more information on the wokshop format and topics covered visit: http://www.euro-vo.org/aidahandson2009

12. UPCOMING ASTRONOMY MEETINGS IN GREECE

The following meetings will take place in Greece. Please check the corresponding web page or contact the organizers by e-mail for more information.

2nd International Conference on Chaotic Modeling and Simulation Chania, Crete, 1-5 June 2009 Modern Challenges in Nonlinear Plasma Physics - A conference honoring the career of K. Papadopoulos. Sani Resort, Halkidiki, 15-19 June 2009 9th Conference of the Hellenic Astronomical Society Athens, 21-24 September 2009 6th Conference of Greek Amateur Astronomers Alexandroupoli, 25-27 September 2009

13. ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER

This Newsletter was sent to all members of Hel.A.S. who have e-mail access. The next edition of the Newsletter will be mailed around March 1st 2009. Please send your announcements (e.g. appointments/departures, job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece) or comments before February 25, 2009. 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 inform the Secretary of Hel.A.S.