JUNE 2020 - TOPICS

Short News 38th General Assembly of Hel.A.S. John Hugh Seiradakis (1948-2020) Obituary University admission for winners of Astronomy Olympiads Position on Astrophysics at University of Ioannina, physics department PhD Fellowships at the Institute of Astrophysics - FORTH Alpbach Summer school 2020 postponed Student and Postdoctoral Research Opportunities Abroad Upcoming Astronomy Meetings in Greece About this Newsletter

1. Short News

Dear Members of our Society, we hope this message find you well. Postal service between Greece and Spain has resumed, and we have finally been able to send the ballots to our members there. Countries where mail cannot be sent yet include Brazil, Oman and the UAE. We hope it will not be too long before everything is back to normal and we will be keeping you up to date concerning the progress of the elections and other events. We wish to congratulate Dr. Eleni Vardoulaki, currently a postdoctoral researcher at MPifR in Bonn (Germany), who was recently awarded an 3.5 year postdoctoral researcher position at Thüringer Landessternwarte in Tautenburg (Germany). In her new position Dr. Vardoulaki will be the coordinator of intense radio astronomy data based on the local LOFAR station. The Society extends its best wishes to Dr. Vardoulaki for further successes in her professional endeavors. The Society would like to remind and alert its Junior Members of the upcoming, June 20 deadline for travel grant support for the second half of the year. The students who had a financial support for meetings of the first half of 2020 which were canceled due to the crisis will be able to use the financial support the next half of 2020 or the next year. More information and the grant application form can be found at the News & Events Section of the Society's web site.

2. 38th General Assembly of Hel.A.S.

The Governing Council of Hel.A.S. announces that the next, 38th General Assembly of the Society is scheduled for Friday, July 17, 2020 at the Society's legal base, namely the Section of Astrophysics, Astronomy and Mechanics of the Physics Department of the University of Athens. The General Assembly will convene at 09:30, in case a quorum consisting of 40%+1 of Ordinary and Junior Members is achieved. If no quorum is achieved by 09:30, the General Assembly will convene at the same location at 13:30 of the same day, regardless of quorum, in accordance with the Society's Constitution. The Society's elections for the Governing Council of the 2020 - 2022 service term will be taking place in the course of the forthcoming General Assembly. The election-pertinent material, instructions and guidelines was send to the Ordinary and Junior members with delays because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Envelopes also include an invitation and tentative agenda for the General Assembly. The names and short CVs of the candidates for the Governing Council and the Auditors are already uploaded online in the News and Events Section of the Society's website CV_2020.pdf. The financial report for the 2018 - 2020 term will be uploaded online location in due time and will be presented and discussed during the General Assembly. The Governing Council takes this opportunity to remind all Ordinary and Junior Members who wish to vote in the upcoming elections to fulfill the financial requirements for this action: according to Articles 14 and 27 of the Society's Constitution, no Member can vote in person or via an absentee ballot if not in good membership standing. This means that membership fees including the year 2019 should be covered by the election date in order to be eligible to vote. Both the Society's future and standing rely on a robust election turnout; for this reason, Members are strongly encouraged to fulfill this financial requirement that will validate their voting rights. You will be informed of any possible change of the announced dates.

3. John Hugh Seiradakis (1948-2020)  obituary

With great sorrow we announce the passing of Prof. John Hugh Seiradakis, a respected and beloved colleague and professor and a founding member of our Society. John Hugh Seiradakis was not only the second President of our Society for four years (1998-2002), but he also masterminded its establishment and wrote the first document that eventually led to our Society’s Constitution. In this respect Hel.A.S. can be considered as his brain-child. John Hugh Seiradakis was born in Chania, Crete on March 5, 1948. He obtained his degree in Physics at the University of Athens (1971) and he continued his education at the Victoria University of Manchester, where he obtained his M.S. (1973) and his Ph.D. (1975) on the subject of pulsars observations under the supervision of Dr. John G. Davies. He worked as a researcher at the Max-Plank Institut fuer Radioastronomie, Bonn, at the University of Hamburg and at the University of California, San Diego. In 1985 he was appointed Associate Professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and in 1996 he was promoted to full Professor. In 2011 he was elected Director of the Laboratory of Astronomy of the Aristotle University, a position that he held until his retirement in 2015, after which he was appointed Professor Emeritus. His domain of expertise included neutron stars, neutral hydrogen modeling in nearby galaxies, the center of our Galaxy, flare stars, Lunar Transient Phenomena and Archaeoastronomy. He has published more than 74 scientific papers in refereed journals and more than 80 papers in conference proceedings and special volumes, as well as three University-level textbooks. He has represented Greece in large European networks (OPTICON, ILIAS, CRAF, etc). In December 2005, the highest EU prize Descartes was awarded to the Neutron Stars research network, “PULSE”, in which he was one of the founding members. He was very active in promoting Astronomy to high school students and, in collaboration with the Society for Astronomy and Space at Volos, brought the best students to the International Olympiads of Astronomy and Astrophysics. He also promoted the science of Astronomy to the general public through conferences and popularized articles. Many of our colleagues discovered their inclination in Astronomy because of his inspiring and good-tempered personality. He will always be remembered by us all for his generosity, his leadership and for his selfless contribution to all things astronomical.

4. University admission for winners of Astronomy Olympiads

In a proposed legislative plan that will come shortly to the Greek Parliament for voting, the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs allows medal winners from International Olympiads of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Economics and Robotics to be admitted without entry examinations to University Departments of related curricula. However, the legislation does not include medal winners from the International Olympiad of Astronomy and Astrophysics. The Society for Space and Astronomy at Volos has started an initiative to bring to the attention of the Ministry officials this point. Our Society supports the move and has already posted in the Ministry's discussion forum . A letter of support in agreement with a report from Emeriti Professors H. Varvoglis and J. Seiradakis which has been submitted to the Minister of Education.

5. New position on astrophysics at University of Ioannina's  physics department

We inform you for the opening of a new position, targeted in astronomy for full or associate professor, at the section of astro-geophysics, physics department, University of Ioannina. The deadline is due on 14 July, 2020.

6. PhD Fellowships at the Institute of Astrophysics - FORTH

The Institute of Astrophysics - FORTH announces the availability of PhD fellowships in select areas of observational extragalactic astrophysics under the supervision of Dr. Tanio Diaz Santos (tanio@ia.forth.gr). The student/students will be registered in the PhD program of the Dept. of Physics of the Univ. of Crete and are expected to commence by the end of 2020 or early 2021. The net monthly fellowship stipend is 750 Euros. For more information please check here.

7. Alpbach Summer School 2020 postponed

Du to the COVID-19 pandemic the Summer School Alpbach 2020 on “Comparative Plasma Physics in the Universe” is postponed to 2021, and maintaining the same programme for next year. The new dates for the 44th edition of the Summer School Alpbach 2021 will be July 13 – 22. All applicants will be informed about the postponement directly by the organizers very soon. Students who have applied by April 30, 2020 could leave their applications open for next year if still interested in participating in 2021.

8. Student and Postdoctoral Research Opportunities Abroad

The list below may be refreshed or updated with further established lists: The Collaborative Research Center "Neutrinos and Dark Matter in Astro- and Particle Physics, SFB1258 organizes a seminar series, the 'Virtual Seminar on Multimessenger Astronomy', relevant for PhD students. Check the preliminary schedule: www.sfb1258.de/graduate-school/virtual-seminar-on-multimessenger-astronomy/. Postponed to Summer 2021. The "Applied Galactic Dynamics Summer School" will take place at the Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute, New York, (July 6th-August 14th). Interested Phd students can found more information here. Any Member of the Society who wishes to contribute another credible link with opportunities, or individual opportunities that will, however, be shown in a single-liner format as above, is encouraged to contact the Secretary of the Society.

9. Upcoming Astronomy Meetings in Greece

The following meeting is postponed to next year due to the Covid-19 epidemic. workshop on non-extensive statistical mechanics and kappa distributions 13-17 July, 2020 Chania, Crete

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, 2020.  Please send your announcements (e.g., appointments / departures, job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece) or comments before June 25, 2020. 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.