MARCH 2021 - TOPICS

Short News Hel.A.S. 15th Conference will be Virtual Ten new positions at the Hellenic Space Center Two seminars on "A brief history of nuclear astrophysics" ESA Archival Research Visitor Programme (Deadline 30 April 2021) New faculty position at the Dept. of Physics of the Univ. of Athens Upcoming IAU elections Monthly Colloquium of HelAS Upcoming Astronomy Meetings in Greece About this Newsletter

1. Short News

We would like to congratulate Dr. Aris Tritsis, who was recently awarded a CITA National fellowship and will be moving from Mount Stromlo Observatory to Western University, Canada, later this year. The Society extends its best wishes for further success in his professional pursuits. The minutes of the last meeting of the Governing Council are available here.

2. Hel.A.S. 15th Conference will be Virtual

The Governing Council (GC) of our Society decided unanimously that the 15th Conference of the Society, originally scheduled to take place in Patras from 5 to 8 July 2021, will be held virtually. The GC reached this decision as it is still not clear that the COVID-19 pandemic will be under control by that time. Moreover, all known conferences scheduled for that period are also planned to take place in a virtual form. Updated information concerning the technical aspects of the conference will become available at the conference webpage over the coming days. The GC would like to encourage all members of the Society, in particular the junior members, to register and submit their abstracts for the conference, before the deadline of April 30, 2021. Even though we will not have the opportunity to experience Patras and the hospitality of the LOC this year, we all look forward to a scientifically exciting virtual conference!

3. Ten new positions at the Hellenic Space Center

The Hellenic Space Center has announced the opening of ten (10) positions of Special Scientific Personnel with a fixed-term (3-year) employment contract. Details can be found at: https://hsc.gov.gr/el/careers/. The applications deadline is on March 29, 2021.

4. Two seminars on "A brief history of nuclear astrophysics"

The Institute of Astrophysics - FORTH and the Dept. of Physics of the Univ. of Crete, have the pleasure to host Dr. Nikos Prantzos, a member of HelAS and director of research at IAP, France, broadcasting live two seminars of his on the "History of nuclear astrophysics". The first seminar, entitled "The energy of the Sun and the stars", will take place on Wednesday March 10 2021 at 13:00 while the second, "The origin of the elements in the Universe", will be the following week, on Wednesday March 17 2021 at 13:00. The seminars will be in greek and are at a level ideally suited for physics undergraduate students, as well as graduate students and researchers in astrophysics who are interested to learn how the advances in modern physics during the early 20th century enabled to address fundamental questions about the energy production and chemical enrichment in the universe. To follow the seminars just join at the appropriate time the Youtube channel of the Institute of Astrophysics - FORTH: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMfUfuH8xhzVhDImz4G5mkA or follow the two Facebook events: 10 March 2021 @13:00 https://www.facebook.com/events/855987448514892 17 March 2021 @13:00 https://www.facebook.com/events/810797473116941

5. ESA Archival Research Visitor Programme (Deadline 30 April 2021)

European Space Agency (ESA) welcomes applications from scientists interested in pursuing research projects on data publicly available in the ESA Space Science Archives http://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/esdc. Applications received before 30 April 2021 will be considered for visits in autumn/winter (2021/2022). For further details, including areas of research and contact information, please refer to: http://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/esdc/visitor-programme.

6. New faculty position at the Dept. of Physics of the Univ. of Athens

We inform our members about the opening of a new faculty position at the Department of Physics of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. The position is at the level of Assistant Professor in "Theoretical Mechanics" with an APELLA code APP19507. The application deadline is March 14, 2021.

7. Upcoming IAU elections

The IAU elections are approaching and members of our Society are encouraged to stand for election for a position on a Commission or on a Division Steering Committee. The deadline for nominations if 8 March 2021 and you can apply through the IAU website, at (note you need to login with your IAU credentials first): https://www.iau.org/submissions/commission_candidacy/ and https://www.iau.org/submissions/division_candidacy/.

8. Monthly Colloquium of HelAS

We are happy to announce that the March 2021 colloquium speaker is Dr. Evanthia Hatziminaoglou. As usual, videos of all past colloquia are available in the Youtube channel of the Society. Details of the upcoming colloquium follow: 6th Monthly Colloquium of HelAS - 9 March 2021 "ALMA: the soul of (sub)mm astronomy" by Dr. Evanthia Hatziminaoglou (ESO, Germany) Tuesday, 9 March 2021 at 18:00 Athens time (UTC + 2:00) Click for ZOOM link (Meeting ID: 999 2404 0431 and Passcode: 831256) Abstract: ALMA is the largest radio-astronomy project in the world, a telescope with a revolutionary design, composed by 66 high-precision antennas that observe the Universe in (sub)millimetre wavelengths, between 0.3 and 9.6 mm. The antennas are located at 5000 m at the altiplano of Chajnantor, in the north of Chile, a region with exceptionally favourable observing conditions. With its unprecedented sensitivity and resolution, ALMA is changing our knowledge of the cold Universe and opens a window towards the young Universe, the first stars and galaxies as well as the molecular gas and the interstellar dust. ALMA also allows us to study the basic components of stars, extra-solar planetary systems and the origins of life, in an effort to answer primordial questions regarding our cosmic origins. In this talk, I will present the history, the technology and the future of ALMA and I will go briefly over some of the most important discoveries made with this extraordinary facility during its 10 years of science operations.

9. Upcoming Astronomy Meetings in Greece

15th Hellenic Astronomical Conference 5-8 July 2021, Patras Workshop on "Non-extensive statistical mechanics and kappa distributions" 12-16 July 2021, Chania, Island of Crete Alvio@80 Conference in honor of Alvio Renzini 5-10 September 2021, Kolymbari, Island of 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 April 1, 2021.  Please send your announcements (e.g., appointments / departures, job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece) or comments before March 25, 2021. 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.