JUNE 2011 - TOPICS

Short News Meeting of the Governing Council of Hel.A.S. The 10th Hellenic Astronomical Conference- Important updates New Members of Hel.A.S. Skinakas Observatory turns 25 years old! The EAS Tycho Brahe Prize and Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture 2011 The XXIII Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics Call for EAS Symposia during EWASS 2012 Upcoming Astronomy Meetings in Greece About this Newsletter

1. SHORT NEWS

We would like to congratulate Prof. Yervant Terzian, who has been awarded "The Tisch University Professorship" at Cornell University. The Tisch chair is one of a very small number of extremely prestigious University Endowed Chairs. It recognizes distinguished Cornell faculty with exceptional accomplishments in research and teaching who have had unusual impact at Cornell and beyond.

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

The Governing Council of Hel.A.S. met on the 25th of May 2011. As usual the minutes of the meeting will soon be available online at the end of the web page: http://www.helas.gr/council.php

3. THE 10th HELLENIC ASTRONOMICAL CONFERENCE

The Governing Council of Hel.A.S. decided to extend the abstract submission deadline for the upcoming 10th Conference of the Society to July 10th 2011. Please note that this is the final deadline and no abstracts will be considered for the conference past that date. Everyone is invited to visit the conference web site, register online, and submit an abstract for an oral or poster contribution. More information is available at: http://www.helas.gr/conf/2011

The Governing Council of Hel.A.S. wishes to enhance the visibility of the Conference and promote as actively as possible the scientific achievements of the Society's members that will be presented in the Conference. To this end, the Council appointed the Secretary of the Society to act as the "public relations officer" for the Conference. His duties are to inform major Greek media about the conference, soon before it starts.

The Council decided to prepare up to three "Public Releases" related to oral contributions which will be given by members of the Society at the Conference. After the announcement of the final programme on August the 1st, the Conveners of Sessions 1-4 will suggest to the Council talks which have the potential to generate significant media or public interest. The Council will choose the best candidates for the Public Releases, and will then request the authors to prepare the appropriate material that will be uploaded on the web page of the Conference, and will be actively promoted to the media by the conference PR-officer.

The SOC will also decide whether one of the abstracts chosen for oral presentation by a "young" member of the Society ("young" meaning a scientist during or within 5 years of their PhD studies) could be presented in one of the plenary sessions as a "Highlight talk by a young scientist". The decision will be announced on the Conference's web page after the announcement of the final programme of the Conference, on the 1st of August.

The Council will support financially 10 PhD students, members of the Society, whose contributions will be chosen either for an oral or a poster presentation at the Conference. More information is available at the Conference's web site.

4. NEW MEMBERS OF HEL.A.S.

During the 29th General Assembly of the Society, which will take place in September 2011 at the time of the 10th Hellenic Astronomical Conference, new members of the Society will be elected, and Junior members who have received their PhD this past year will be moved to the Ordinary status. This is a once in a year event as new members can only be elected during a General Assembly. We would like to request from all members of the Society to inform any individual who they believe would be interested to join Hel.A.S. to submit his/her application to the Secretary of the Society before July 31, 2011. For more information on how to join the Hellenic Astronomical Society, as well as the benefits of being a member visit: http://www.helas.gr/membership.php

5. SKINAKAS OBSERVATORY TURNS 25 YEARS OLD!

On Sunday May 29th 2011 Skinakas Observatory celebrated its 25 years of successful operations. During this period the Observatory kept updating its high quality instrumentation, trained numerous undergraduates and graduates students of the University of Crete, and presented the wonders of the night sky to thousands of visitors. Furthermore, researchers from Greece and abroad have published 103 refereed papers using used data from its facilities. More information on the event is available at: http://skinakas.physics.uoc.gr/en/25years

6. THE EAS TYCHO BRAHE PRIZE AND LODEWIJK WOLTJER LECTURE 2011

The European Astronomical Society (EAS) is proud to announce that the 2011 Tycho Brahe Prize of the EAS is awarded to Prof. Michael Perryman for his crucial role in the fostering of high precision, global stellar astrometry from space, in particular the development of the Hipparcos mission. The prestigious 2011 Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture of EAS is awarded to Prof. George Miley for his fundamental contributions to the study of radio galaxies. Full details can be found in the official EAS press release: htthttp://eas.unige.ch/documents/eas_prizes_2011.pdf

7. THE XXIII CANARY ISLANDS WINTER SCHOOL OF ASTROPHYSICS

The XXIII Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics, organized by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC), will take place at Puerto de La Cruz in Tenerife (Spain) on 14-25 November 2011. The Winter School welcomes a maximum of 60 PhD students and young Post-Docs, and this year it will provide a unique opportunity for the participants to broaden their knowledge on topics related to the secular evolution of galaxies. The application deadline is 15 June 2011. More details are available at: http://www.iac.es/winterschool/2011

8. CALL FOR EAS SYMPOSIA DURING EWASS 2012

The European Astronomical Society (EAS), issued a call for expressions of interest to organize EAS symposia during the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science (EWASS) which will take place in Rome from 2-6 July, 2012. A broad range of parallel sessions can be accommodated in the form of "Special Sessions" consisting of up to 3 blocks of 1.5 hours, or longer sessions ("Symposia") consisting of up to 6 blocks of 1.5 hours, stretching over 2 days. All proposals should be submitted as plain text email, with up to a maximum of 500 words. The proposal deadline is 30 June 2011. More details about this opportunity are available at: http://eas.unige.ch/news_display.jsp?news_id=20110513

9. 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.

10th Conference of Hel.A.S. Ioannina, 5-8 September 2011 13th European Solar Physics Meeting (ESPM-13) Rhodes, 12-16 September 2011

10. 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 July 1, 2011. Please send your announcements (e.g. appointments/departures, job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece) or comments before June 25, 2011. 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.