JULY 2014 - TOPICS

Short News IAASARS/NOA donation to Hel.A.S. HEL.A.S. Elections 32nd General Assembly of Hel.A.S. 12th Conference of Hel.A.S. The 1st Summer School of Hel.A.S. (Athens, September 1-5, 2014) Greek PhDs in Astrophysics and Space Physics IMPRS PhD Positions in Astronomy and Astrophysics - 1st Call Upcoming Astronomy Meetings in Greece About this Newsletter

1. SHORT NEWS

We would like to congratulate Dr. Magdalini Anastasiou, a member of our society, who recentrly obtained her PhD from the Department of Physics of AUTh (Lab. of Astronomy) and wish her all the best for her future career. We would like to inform our members that the latest issue of Hipparchos (Vol. 2, Issue 11, June 2014) has been published and can be downloaded form our website (http://www.helas.gr/hipparchos/hipparchos_v2_11.pdf). Hard copies were distributed to Hel.A.S. members during the 32nd General Assembly (June 2014).

2. IAASARS/NOA DONATION TO Hel.A.S

As most of you know, the Society has decided to cover the cost of annual publication fees for astronomers working in Greek Institutions to the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics” (year 2014), after the problem that arose with the GSRT. The director of IAASARS/NOA and former Secretary of our Society, Prof. Vassilis Charmandaris, notified the GC that IAASARS wishes to contribute to this cost, by donating the sum of 1,500 euros to Hel.A.S. The President of Hel.A.S, Prof. Loukas Vlahos, and the GC wish to thank Prof. Charmandaris and IAASARS/NOA for this donation, which they accept with gratitude.

3. THE ELECTIONS OF HEL.A.S.

In the elections that followed the 32nd General Assembly, the members of Hel.A.S. voted for the President of the Society, as well as for the new Council and Auditors for the 2014-2016 term. Of the 217 ordinary and junior members, a total of 66 eligible ballots were collected. The results of the elections were: Candidate for President of HelAS: Vlahos Loukas [51 votes] Candidates for the Governing Council (6 elected): Georgoulis Manolis [29 votes] Kazantzidis Stelios [15 votes] Bonanos Alceste [34 votes] Xilouris Manolis [31 votes] Reig Pablo [20 votes] Tsiganis Kleomenis [29 votes] Candidates for Auditors (3 elected): Apostolatos Theocharis [38 votes] Patsourakos Spiros [25 votes] Christopoulou Eleftheria-Panagiota [26 votes] Seventeen (17) of the ballots received by mail were not used since no proof of the identity of the sender (such as a xerox copy of some form of ID) was included in the brown envelope containing the sealed ballot of the member. The remaining 66 ballots, contained thirteen (13) blank votes, while two (2) votes were not counted since they were found irregular. Based on these results and according to the Constitution of Hel.A.S., Prof. L. Vlahos will be the President of the Society for the 2014-2016 term. Drs. M. Georgoulis, S. Kazantzidis, A. Bonanos, M. Xilouris, P. Reig and K. Tsiganis will be the members of the Council for the same period, while Drs. T. Apostolatos, E.-P. Christopoulou and S. Patsourakos will act as Auditors.

4. THE 32nd GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF Hel.A.S.

During the 32nd General Assembly (GA) of Hel.A.S. which took place on June 13, 2014, the President of the Society N. Kylafis summarized the activities of HelAS during the last two years and the Treasurer, N. Vlahakis, presented a detailed account of the finances. The Secretary, I. Papadakis, introduced to the GA the applications of four Junior members, namely Dr. Anastasiou M., Dr. Dimitrakoudis Stavros, Dr Nikoloudakis N., and Dr Petropoulou Maria, who had requested to change their membership status from Junior to Ordinary Members. The GA unanimously approved the changes of membership status. He also introduced the application of Dr. A. Solomonidou to become Ordinary member, the applications of two Phd students who wish to join our Society as Junior members (Mr. T. Epitropakis, and Mr. A. Tritsis, from the Univ. of Crete) as well as the application of Mrs. M.-E. Chrysafeli to become Associate member of the Society. The GA unanimously approved the applications.

5. 12th CONFERENCE OF Hel.A.S.

During its first meeting, the new GC decided that the next (12th) conference of our Society will take place in Thessaloniki in June 2015 – the exact date wiil be decided in the forthcoming GC meeting. The GC took into account the results of the recent doodle poll, in which the participating members of Hel.A.S rulled in favor of holding the conference in June, rather than September.

6. THE 1st SUMMER SCHOOL OF Hel.A.S. (Athens, September 1-5, 2014)

The Hellenic Astronomical Society (Hel.A.S.), in collaboration with the National Observatory of Athens (NOA) and the Research Center for Astronomy and Applied Mathematics ( RCAAM) of the Academy of Athens, under the initiative to offer knowledge and scientific training to the younger members, graduate students and young postdoctoral researchers, is organizing the 1st Summer School entitled: < center > "Physical Processes and Data Analysis in Heliophysics" The school will take place in Athens from the 1st until the 5th of September 2014. The registration deadline is July 15th, 2014. More information can be found at: http://www.helas.gr/school/2014

7. GREEK PHDs IN ASTROPHYSICS AND SPACE PHYSICS

The Hellenic Astronomical Society in collaboration with the Greek National Committee for Astronomy (GNCA) have commenced an initiative to record all PhD dissertations in the area of astronomy, astrophysics, and space physics that have been completed in Greek Universities. This is an important metric on the development and scientific impact of our country in the corresponding areas. In order to be as complete as possible the collaboration of all members of our Society will be essential. If you have either obtained a PhD in Greece, or as a faculty in a University in greece you have supervised PhD students, please contact Ms. Rania Koumentakou (Secretary of GNCA and IAASARS/NOA) at ourania@noa.gr providing the following information: a) the name of the PhD holder, b) the title of the PhD dissertation (in english and in greek), c) the name of the thesis supervisor, d) the University which awarded the PhD title and e) the year the degree was awarded. We greatly appreciate your assistance on this issue. Hopefully over the next few months we will have collected most of the relevant information and we will communicate them to all our members.

8. IMPRS PhD POSITIONS IN ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS - 1st CALL

The International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Universities of Bonn and Cologne has issued its 1st Call for PhD positions in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Dr. Emmanouil (Manolis) Angelakis,a member of our Society, is the Coordinator of IMPRS. The deadline for this call is November 15, 2014. For more details, please see: http://www.mpifr.de/imprs

9. UPCOMING ASTRONOMY MEETINGS IN GREECE

Geospace revisited: a Cluster/MAARBLE/VAP conference Rhodes, 15-20 September 2014 NEB 16 - Recent Developments in Gravity Mykonos, Greece, 17-20 September, 2014

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 August 1st, 2014. Please send your announcements (e.g. appointments/departures, job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece) or comments before July 28, 2014. 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.