FEBRUARY 2010 - TOPICS

Short News Upcoming Elections of the Governing Council of Hel.A.S. Job Opening Graduate Studies in Astrophysics in Crete for 2010-2011 Summer Undergraduate Internships at CfA/Harvard Summer School on Climate Change - Alpbach 2010 Upcoming OPTICON Call for Proposals Greek Participation in ESA Cosmic Vision Missions AO for ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter Instruments Upcoming Astronomy Meetings in Greece About this Newsletter

1. SHORT NEWS

We would like to congratulate Dr. Ioannis A. Daglis (NOA/ISARS), for joining the Science Working Team of the Rosetta mission of the European Space Agency (ESA), as the Scientific Representative of the SREM instrument. We would like to congratulate Dr. Th. Economou (Univ. of Chicago, USA), for being awarded the "Νίκη"(=Victory) Prize by the Athens Information Technology Institute. We would like to congratulate Dr. Miltiadis Vavoulidis (Univ. of Thessaloniki), who had been awarded a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship position and has already moved to the VIRGO (gravitational wave detection) group at the Laboratoire de l' Accelerateur Lineaire of Univ. de Paris-Sud 11 (France) . We would like to congratulate Dr. Markos Trichas (Imperial College London, UK), who has recently been awarded a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship position at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (USA), and will be moving there next summer. The European Space Agency (ESA) announced the selection of the ASPIICS Coronagraph, among several submitted proposals for the PROBA 3 mission, an ESA mission devoted to the in-orbit demonstration of formation flying techniques and technologies. In the multinational Coronagraph consortium there is a strong and central Greek participation (Command & Control Board) headed by the President of the Hel.A.S.

2. UPCOMING ELECTIONS OF THE GOVERNING COUNCIL OF HEL.A.S.

During the meeting its December 17th meeting the Governing Council of Hel.A.S. decided that the next (28th) General Assembly (GA) of Society will take place on Monday the 21st of June 2010 at the Department of Physics of the University of Athens. During this GA the new Governing Council of the Society for the 2010-2012 term will be elected. All members must have already received by post the official announcement regarding the elections. According to Article 29 of the Constitution all ordinary members of the Society who have no outstanding membership fees may nominate themselves or other ordinary members for the Council. The nominations have to be returned to the Secretary of the Society by February 28th 2010. The call for nominations as well as the necessary forms are also available online at the "News & Events" section of the web pages of the Society. More information on the General Assembly and the elections will become available in future newsletters.

3. JOB OPENING

A new position at the level of "Assistant Professor" in the field of "Theoretical Astrophysics" has opened at the Department of Physics of the University of Crete (F.E.K. 10/15-1-2010). The application deadline is March 26, 2010. For more information please contact the Secretariat of the Department Mrs A. Armenaki-Koutendaki, phone: +30 2810 394308.

4. GRADUATE STUDIES IN ASTROPHYSICS IN CRETE FOR 2010-2011

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 2010-2011 Graduate Program in "Advanced Physics". Within this program there is a possibility to provide qualified applicants 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. Information on the research of the group is available in the 2009 Annual Report, while details on the Astrophysics Graduate Program in Crete can be found in the following [PDF file]. The deadline for early applications is March 15, 2010 and the final application deadline is July 15, 2010. For more information 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/

5. SUMMER UNDERGRADUATE INTERNSHIPS AT CfA/HARVARD

In the Summer of 2010 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, 2010. For more information visit: http://helio.cfa.harvard.edu/REU

6. SUMMER SCHOOL ON CLIMATE CHANGE - ALPBACH 2010

Held annually since 1975, the Alpbach Summer School enjoys a long tradition in providing in-depth teaching on aspects of space science and space technology with the aim of advancing the training and working experience of European graduates, post-graduate students, young scientists and engineers. The 2010 Summer School Alpbach will take place on July 27 - August 5, 2010 at Alpbach/Tyrol in Austria. The theme of the School is "New Space Missions for Understanding Climate Change " and the registration deadline is March 31, 2010. The number of participants will be limited to 60 and confirmation of acceptance will be given by the end of April 2010. The purpose of the Summer School is to foster the practical application of knowledge derived from lectures, to develop organizational and team-work skills and to encourage creativity. Teams will compete to design the best project, judged by an independent jury. The teams themselves are responsible for the selection of the subject of the project and for the team structure and working methods. Two students from Greece will be selected for the workshop and their transportation and accommodation expenses as well as the registration fee will be covered by the Greek Ministry of Education. For more information visit: http://www.summerschoolalpbach.at/

7. UPCOMING OPTICON CALL FOR PROPOSALS

OPTICON, a European commission project supported under the 7th framework programme, operates trans-national access programme providing access to a suite of European medium sized night time telescopes. A new call of proposals will soon be announced. Interested parties are encouraged to review the PDF announcement, as well as monitor the dedicated web site: http://www.ing.iac.es/opticon/

8. GREEK PARTICIPATION IN ESA COSMIC VISION MISSIONS

The General Secretariat for Research and Technology is exploring the possibility of Greek participation in approved ESA Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Missions. There are six M-class missions and four L-class missions currently under evaluation by ESA, in order for some to proceed to the Definition Phase. All interested parties, such as academic and research institutions as well as industrial partners, who wish to be involved are invited read the GSRT announcement (PDF file) and to contact Mr. V. Kaleridi (+30 210-7458190, vkas@gsrt.gr).

9. AO FOR EXOMARS TRACE INSTRUMENTS

ESA and NASA have issued an announcement of opportunity soliciting proposals for scientific instruments for the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, one element of the joint ESA-NASA ExoMars programme. The ExoMars Programme comprises two joint mission opportunities for launch in 2016 and 2018. These will investigate the Martian environment and demonstrate new technologies paving the way for a future Mars sample return mission in the 2020's. The due date for notice of intent is February 19, 2010. For more information visit: http://exploration.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=46297

10. 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.

High Time Resolution Astrophysics in the era of Extremely Large Telescopes Aghios Nikolaos, Crete, 5-7 May 2010 Astronomy with Megastructures Aghios Nikolaos, Crete, 10-14 May 2010 Recent Developments in Gravity (NEB-14) Ioannina, 8-11 June 2010 Binary Star Evolution: Mass Loss, Accretion, and Mergers Mykonos, 22-25 June 2010

11. 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 2010. Please send your announcements (e.g. appointments/departures, job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece) or comments before February 25, 2010. 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.