AUGUST 2016 - TOPICS

Short News Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation Academy of Athens Scholarships for Astronomy and Theoretical Physics 2nd ASTERICS Virtual Observatory School Upcoming Astronomy Meetings in Greece About this Newsletter

1. Short News

We would like to congratulate Drs. Maria Andriopoulou, Chrysoula Avdellidou, Nikolay Britavskiy, Evgenia Koumpia, Ioannis Myserlis, Antonios Nathanail, Athanasios Papageorgiou, Petros Syntelis, Evangelia Tsigaridi and Chloe Vamvatira-Nakou for having recently completed their PhD theses and moved to Ordinary Member status in the Society. We were happy to be informed that Dr. Antonios Nathanail has been awarded a Humboldt Research Fellowship, while Dr. Petros Syntelis has moved to a post-doctoral position at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Following the most recent, 34th General Assembly of the Society, we are happy to report a total member count of 258, with 204 Ordinary Members.

2. Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation

The first national research agency, named the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI), appears to be well on track: the public consultation phase was concluded in early July 2016 and the law that will facilitate its establishment should be passed in early Fall this year. More importantly, the HFRI seems to have secured a 240 MEUR loan by the European Investment Bank, that will provide the funding resources for the first three years of its operation. Should the plan materialize, it will provide the first substantial funding injection to the beleaguered Greek scientific community after several years of a nearly non-existent national funding. The primary focus of the HFRI will be on basic research and support of young researchers without a tenured, or tenure-track, position. Support for graduate studies and doctoral theses will also be high on the HFRI agenda. The news made headlines internationally, with a recent Nature article devoted on the subject. The article can be found here.

3. Academy of Athens Scholarships for Astronomy and Theoretical Physics

The Academy of Athens has announced a Call for Applications for the awarding of four (4) Scholarships, two of which are in the areas of Astronomy (1 position) and Theoretical Physics (1 position). The scholarships will be intended for students deciding to pursue graduate studies abroad. The announcement and detailed information can be found here. The deadline for the submission of application is September 29, 2016.

4. 2nd ASTERICS Virtual Observatory School

The ASTERICS (asterics2020.eu) project is organising its second Virtual Observatory (VO) School on 15-17 November 2016 at Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France. The goal of the School is to expose European astronomers to the variety of VO tools and services available so that they can use them efficiently for their own research and to get feedback from them. Participation will be restricted to 40 participants and preference will be given to PhD students and post-docs. More information is available here.

5. Upcoming Astronomy Meetings in Greece

Following a very prolific first half of the year in terms of astronomy and astrophysics meetings in Greece, the following are the remaining meetings for 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

6. 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 September 1st, 2016. Please send your announcements (e.g. appointments/departures, job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece) or comments before August 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 at secretary@helas.gr.