MARCH 2016 - TOPICS

Short News Candidates for the Elections of Hel.A.S. (reminder) The 2nd Hel.A.S. Astrophysics Summer School - Program Aristarchos Call for Proposals 2016 WFIRST opportunity for European scientists Studentship Programme at the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes Faculty Positions in Astrophysics at Instituto de Astrofisica de Atacama Supernova Remnants: An Odyssey in Space after Stellar death Symposia in EWASS 2016 Upcoming Astronomy Meetings in Greece About this Newsletter

1. Short News

We wish to congratulate Dr. Theodoros Bitsakis, a member of our Society, for being awarded a long term (10+ years) CONACYT research fellow position at the Center for Radio Astronomy and Astrophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Morelia.

2. Candidates for the Elections of Hel.A.S. (reminder)

Please be reminded that the deadline for proposing candidates for the next GC of Hel.A.S. is Monday 29th of February. The next elections of Hel.A.S. will take place on June the 17th, 2016. The 34th General Assembly (GA) of the Society will also take place at the University of Athens, on the same day. According to Article 29 of our Constitution, all ordinary members of the Society who have no outstanding membership fees may nominate themselves or other ordinary members for the Council. The call for nominations as well as the nomination forms have been uploaded at the "News & Events" section of the web page of the Society.

3. The 2nd Hel.A.S. Astrophysics Summer School - Program

We remind our members that registration for the 2nd Hel.A.S. Astrophysics Summer School is now open. The School will take place in Athens, on July 11-15, 2016. The scientific program has been announced and can be found here.

4. Aristarchos Call for Proposals 2016

The proposal deadline for the observing period July 1- October 31, 2016 is March 31, 2016 (23:59 Local Time). Anybody with an affiliation at a Greek institution can apply, regardless of nationality. Up to 25% of the available time will be awarded to applicants with affiliations other than IAASARS/NOA. Up to 12 nights will be awarded to EU applicants via the OPTICON. More information is available here.

5.  WFIRST opportunity for European scientists

An opportunity has been announced for European scientists to potentially participate in the WFIRST science formulation work. For more information, please click here.

6.  Studentship Programme at the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes

The programme provides a unique opportunity for up to four PhD, MSc or undergraduate astronomy students to get hands-on experience of work at an international observatory. Successful applicants will spend one year on La Palma, supporting imaging and spectroscopy runs at the 2.5-m Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) and working on projects supervised by the ING staff. The studentship programme is open to anyone, but particularly welcome are applicants from the three partner countries: the Netherlands, Spain and the UK.  The deadline for applications is 31st March 2016. Details of the programme can be found here.

7.  Faculty Positions in Astrophysics at Instituto de Astrofisica de Atacama

The Instituto de Astrofisica de Atacama (IAA) at the Universidad De Atacama (UDA) in Copiapo (Chile) invites applications for two faculty positions to join the IAA team. The successful candidates will join a group of five faculty working on a broad range of research topics and will have access to the Chilean Time in a broad array of facilities, including ALMA, VLT, Gemini, Magellan, LSST, GMT and the E-ELT. To receive full consideration, applications must be sent by Friday 18 of March 2016, although the position will remain open until filled. Start date is expected to be October 2016. For more information visit this web-page.

8. Supernova Remnants: An Odyssey in Space after Stellar death

The meeting “Supernova Remnants: An Odyssey in Space after Stellar death” will explore the exciting recent observational and theoretical progress in the structure, evolution and physics of SNRs. The conference will build upon spectral and imaging observations from radio to gamma-ray wavelengths of SNR blast waves, pulsar wind nebulae and SN ejecta and their interpretation through models and numerical simulations. The goals of the meeting are understanding the evolution of SNRs and their interaction with interstellar gas, elucidating the physical processes that govern shock waves and relativistic plasmas, and inferring characteristics of supernova explosions from SNR observations. The meeting is organized by the Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications & Remote Sensing of the National Observatory of Athens and will take place in Chania, Crete, between June 6-11, 2016. The deadline for abstract submission is March 4, 2016. For more details, please visit the conference website.

9. Symposia in EWASS 2016

We would like to draw your attention to the following Symposia, co-organized by members of our Society, in the framework of this year's EWASS: Symposium S9: The Dynamics of Star and Planet Formation In this Symposium (organized by: K. Tsinganos and Nick Wright as co-chairs, Francesca Bacciotti, Jim Dale, Odysseas Dionatos, Manuel Guedel, Richard Parker, Magnus Persson, Sarah Ragan, Tom Ray, Christophe Sauty, Rowan Smith, and Catherine Vlahakis) topics which will discussed include:  Molecular clouds and early-stage star formation, Magnetospheric accretion onto protostars, Kinematics and chemical evolution of proto-planetary disks and implications for planet formation, Dynamics of young stars and the formation of star clusters, The origin and role of feedback mechanisms such as outflows, stellar winds and UV radiation, Current (e.g., Herschel, ALMA, GES, MUSE, Gaia) and future (SKA, LSST, JWST) facilities and how they have/will impact the field of star and planet formation. The meeting will be an important occasion bringing together observers and theorists to highlight the latest results on star and planet formation, make new connections and outline current challenges. It will also discuss new pathways for future observations with upcoming facilities such as JWST, LSST and the SKA.  Abstract submission deadline is 15 March, 2016. More info about S9 can be found here.  Symposium S7: X-rays from AGN: looking into the central engine             This symposium (organized by: M. Dovciak, M. Guainazzi, E. Kara, I. Papadakis and A. Young) will focus on the X-ray emission from AGN, by discussing the evidence for relativistic signatures in the spectral and timing properties of the sources, by addressing the issues of how supermassive black holes accrete matter, how and where the X-ray continuum emission is produced, the relationship between accretion and ejection, and the geometry of the corona and disc. The symposium aims to present timing and spectral data analysis, in combination with the results from new theoretical developments. In this way, its objective is to provide a comprehensive summary of the current knowledge in this relatively new and rapidly developing field, in time to exploit missions such as Hitomi (Astro-H) and AstroSat, and to assist with the planning of future European observatories such as Athena. More info about S7 can be found here. Symposium S11: Gamma-ray bursts: recent theoretical models and observations             This symposium (organized by: I. Contopoulos, S. R. Oates, D. Giannios, A. Levan, M. De Pasquale, A. Castro-Tirado, P. Schady, M. Symeonidis and A. Nathanail) aims to keep the astrophysical community abreast of the latest developments in the far-reaching field of Gamma-ray bursts, by bringing together observers, numerical modellers, and theorist from several fields who will explore: the nature of the GRB central engine, the diversity of GRBs, short GRBs and multi messenger observations, the future prospects for observations and numerical simulations, the relationship between GRBs and supernovae, host galaxies of GRBs and the use of GRBs as probes of the ISM of high redshift galaxies. More info about S11 can be found here.

10. Upcoming Astronomy Meetings in Greece

The following meetings are scheduled to take place in Greece during 2016: Escape of Lyman radiation from galactic labyrinths OAC, Kolymbari, Crete, 26-29 April, 2016 Astronomical Data Analysis 2016 Summer School Chania, 22-24 May, 2016 Statistical Challenges in 21st Century Cosmology Chania, 24-27 May, 2016 Supernova Remnants: An Odyssey in Space after Stellar Death Chania, Crete, 6-11 June, 2016 Hot spots in the XMM sky: Cosmology from X-ray to Radio Mykonos, 15-18 June, 2016 The 2016 NEON Observing School  Greece June 19- July 2, 2016 European Week of Astronomy and Space Science Athens, 4-8 July, 2016 2nd Hel.A.S. Summer School Athens, 11-15 July, 2016 17th NEB conference on “Recent Developments in Gravity” Mykonos, September 19-22, 2016 The ISM-SPP Olympian School of Astrophysics  Paralia Katerinis, October 3-7, 2016

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 April 1st, 2016. Please send your announcements (e.g. appointments/departures, job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece) or comments before March 26, 2016. 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.