FEBRUARY 2017 - TOPICS

Short News Best PhD Thesis Prize 2017 SG[Greece] Event in Athens 2017 Alpbach Summer School Current National Research Opportunities Student and Postdoctoral Research Opportunities Abroad Upcoming Astronomy Meetings in Greece About this Newsletter

1. Short News

The Society would like to congratulate Ordinary Member Dr. Olga Malandraki for being elected to a Senior Researcher position at IAASARS of the National Observatory of Athens. The Society extends its best wishes to Dr. Malandraki for every success in her future endeavors. The Society would like to congratulate Ordinary Member Prof. Konstantinos Tassis (Univ. of Crete & FORTH) and Dr. Evangelia Ntormousi, currently a postdoctoral fellow at CEA-Saclay, France, for being awarded a highly competitive Marie Curie Inter-European Fellowship, as supervisor / host and incoming researcher, respectively. Dr. Ntormousi will commence her  two-year fellowship with the Astrophysics Group at FORTH & Univ. of Crete in the summer of 2017.  It has come to the Society's attention that a tentatively named "National Center for Space Applications" was announced by the Greek Ministry of Digital Policy, Communications and Information. The Center's objective will be to realize the country's full potential on space research and technology, at the same time capitalizing on space application opportunities offered by the European Commission and ESA. The Center will be formally established by a law that, as per the announcement, will be drafted imminently. The Society will keep its members informed as further developments unfold.

2. Best PhD Physics Prize 2017

The Governing Council of Hel.A.S. established in October 2011 the “Best PhD thesis Prize” of the Hellenic Astronomical Society. The Prize is aimed at young scientists working in the fields of Astronomy and Astrophysics. The Council believes that the Prize promotes and increases the visibility of the research done by the Society's Junior members. The prize is restricted to Junior members of Hel.A.S, who have successfully defended (or are expected to defend) their thesis in a University either in Greece or abroad between August 1, 2015 and July 31, 2017. The Thesis should be devoted to a topic in Astronomy or Astrophysics. The Prize is accompanied by an award in the form of financial support for the participation of the Prize recipient in an international conference to present the results from his/her thesis. The award recipient is also expected to give an oral presentation on the awarded thesis at the 13th Conference of Hel.A.S. (Heraklion, 2-6 July 2017). Any Ordinary or Associated member of the Society can propose a candidate for the competition. The proposal should be accompanied by: a) a reference letter, b) the CV of the proposed candidate, c) a list with publications in referred journals and oral/poster presentations in international conferences, and d) an abstract of the thesis (no more than three A4 pages). The deadline for submission is February 28, 2017 and all documents must be submitted by e-mail to the Hel.A.S. Secretary. All proposals are evaluated by the Hel.A.S. Council. The Council evaluates the proposals based mainly on the number of publications (directly relevant to the thesis work) published by the applicant (as main author) in the main astronomical and interdisciplinary Journals (i.e. A&A, MNRAS, ApJ, AJ, Nature, Science, PRL and others), the number of citations to these papers (excluding self-citations), the applicant's overall CV, and the reference letter that accompanies the nomination.

3. SG[Greece] Event in Athens

The Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) organizes its 1st European local event on 17-18 February, 2017, in Athens. A public talk by Dr. Stamatios Krimigis, principal investigator of several NASA missions, ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano and ESA Exomars scientist Pantelis Poulakis will open the proceedings on 17 February at 18:30 in the main auditorium of the Eugenides Foundation (attendees should be at the venue 30 minutes earlier). SGAC invites students and young professionals to take part in the workshop of the next day (18 February at 09:00) at si-Cluster's "α2-innohub". Under the guidance of experts, young people will be informed about space and then participate in the formulation of ideas for the utilization and development of the Greek space sector. The official workshop language is English and registration of interested participants is required in advance for the workshop. More information about participation, as well as the event's agenda, is available here.

4. 2017 Alpbach Summer School

The 2017 Alpbach Summer School is entitled "The Dusty Universe” and will take place on 18-27 July 2017 at Alpbach / Tyrol, Austria. Sixty European engineering and science students will be chosen by an international committee of experts to participate in this 41st Alpbach Summer School, a ten day learning opportunity held in the beautiful Austrian Alps. Participants will be engaged in an in-depth learning experience. Over ten days they will attend stimulating lectures on various aspects of space science and engineering and will work intensely within smaller groups to define and design a space mission under the supervision of noted scientific and engineering experts within the field. The 2017 Alpbach Summer School is about understanding dust, its role in and use as a diagnostic for cosmic evolution. The topic has tremendously benefited from space missions covering the electromagnetic spectrum from X-rays to mm wavelengths, and will continue to be benefited in the future. Students of the 2017 Alpbach Summer School will be informed about past achievements and current issues and will be invited to propose ideas to further explore the dusty Universe. Financial support for any greek student selected will be provided. The application deadline is March 31, 2017. For more information, visit this link or contact Prof. V. Charmandaris.

5. Current National Research Opportunities

Besides the already announced call for proposals by the General Secretariat of Research and Technology (GSRT) in the framework of the European Social Fund (ΕΣΠΑ - details here), the newly established Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI - Ελ.Ιδ.Ε.Κ.) has announced the opening of a call for proposals to support basic research at postdoctoral level. Proposals must be submitted electronically by 17:00 on March 31, 2017. More information about this call and proposal preparation can be found here.

6. Student and Postdoctoral Research Opportunities Abroad

A number of international student and postdoc opportunities in astronomy, astrophysics and space physics have been announced. These include the following openings:   The Leiden / ESA Astrophysics Program for Summer Students (LEAPS), Leiden, the Netherlands. Among others, there are funded opportunities in the areas of "Shapes and Sizes of Solar System Small Bodies", "Pulling Apart Eruptive Solar Filaments" and "The Optical Properties of Far-Infrared Selected Galaxies". The deadline for applications is imminent, February 12, 2017. More information is available here. Research Associates in the Solar Orbiter SWA Operations Team (2 posts) at UCL/MSSL, UK. The Mullard Space Science Laboratory, based near Dorking in Surrey, seek to appoint two individuals to join the Operations team for the Solar Orbiter Solar Wind Analyzer (SWA) Investigation.  The successful applicants will be required to design, develop, build, test and operate the software infrastructure of the SWA facility and capability. The closing date for applications is February 16, 2017. More information is available here. The Department of Physics and Astronomy at Purdue University invites applications for a postdoctoral position in the area of theoretical high-energy astrophysics to join the group of Prof. D. Giannios. Candidates with interests in relativistic astrophysics are particularly encouraged to apply. For more information, see here or contact Prof. Giannios. PostDoctoral Position in Space Physics at the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Kiruna, Sweden. Applications are invited for a post-doctoral position for studies of the magnetosphere-ionosphere interaction focusing on the mechanisms through which the ionosphere affects the magnetosphere. Candidates should have completed (or expect to complete) a PhD in space physics or a related field during 2013 or later. For more information, contact Dr. Tima Sergienko.

7. Upcoming Astronomy Meetings in Greece

3rd OBSPM / LAM Summer School, Galaxy Formation and Evolution in a Cosmological Context, Island of Spetses, 15-19 May, 2017 The Labyrinth of the Unexpected: Unforeseen Treasures in Impossible Regions of Phase Space, Kerastari, Arcadia, Peloponnese, May 29 - June 3, 2017 Polarised Emission from Astrophysical Jets Ierapetra, Crete, June 12-16, 2017 13th Hellenic Astronomical Conference Heraklion, Crete, July 2-6, 2017

8. 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, 2017. Please send your announcements (e.g., appointments/departures, job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece) or comments before  February 25, 2017. 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.