April 2025 - TOPICS
Short News Hel.A.S. Annual Membership Fee New A&A Policy on Paper Length ESA Science Programme Announcements Job opportunities Upcoming Astronomy Meetings and Schools in Greece About this Newsletter
1. Short News
We would like to congratulate Dr. Ioannis Antoniadis for receiving funding through H.F.R.I. for the purchase of an ultrahigh accuracy hydrogen maser atomic clock to be used with Argos Telescope radio antennae. The Society extends its best wishes for further success in his professional pursuits. We would like to congratulate Dr. Antonios Nathanail for being awarded funding for his research on gravitational wave events with neutron stars through the 3rd Call for H.F.R.I. Research Projects to support Faculty Members and Researchers. The Society extends its best wishes for further successes in his professional pursuits. We would like to congratulate Dr. Spiros Vasilakos, Director of the Institute of Astronomy, Astrophysical Space Applications and Teleview, for being recently elected as Director and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Observatory of Athens. The Society extends its best wishes for further successes in his professional pursuits. We would like to congratulate Prof. Vicky Kalogera for being recently named Fellow of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation. Prof. Kalogera, Director of CIERA at Northwestern University, was recognized “for playing a leading role in the astrophysical interpretation of gravitational wave events produced by the merger of black holes and neutron stars”. The Society extends its best wishes for further successes in her professional pursuits. We would like to congratulate Dr. Matthaios Katsanikas for his recent promotion to Researcher Grade B at the RCAAM of the Academy of Athens. The Society extends its best wishes for further successes in his professional pursuits. We would like to congratulate Prof. Kleomenis Tsiganis for receiving the 2025 "Award of Excellence for Senior Researchers in Natural Sciences" by the Committee of Excellence of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The Society extends its best wishes for further successes in his professional pursuits.
2. Hel.A.S. Annual Membership Fee We would like to remind all members of the Society that the annual membership fee is due on August 31st of each year. Therefore, the deadline for the annual membership fee for the year 2024 was August 31st, 2024. If your are uncertain about your payment status please contact the Treasurer and the Secretary. As it has been mentioned in the past, the preferred method of payment is online via the secure server of the Bank of Pireaus, using a direct bank transfer. For more details on this, as well as information on other methods of payment, please review the payment form listed bellow, or contact the Treasurer:  http://www.helas.gr/forms/dues.pdf
3. New A&A Policy on Paper Length
The A&A Board of Directors, together with the A&A Editors, has recently decided to implement publication costs for papers exceeding a size limit, effective for papers submitted to A&A from 2 April 2025. Any authors wishing to exceed the page cap for their regular paper (main body or appendices) or Letter (appendices only) will need to pay a page charge that supports the additional costs associated with the longer format. Page charges will be tiered, reflecting the additional support already provided by sponsoring countries and subscribing institutions. For more details, follow this link.
5. ESA Science Programme Announcements
1. 6th Announcement of Opportunity (AO-6) for participation in the CHEOPS Guest Observers (GO) Programme.     Deadline: 8 May 2025     Details: CHEOPS Guest Observers Programme 2. Call for a Mini-Fast Mission in ESA's Science Programme    Deadline: 8 May 2025    Details: Mini-Fast Mission Call 3. Call for a Medium-Size and a Fast Mission Opportunity in ESA's Science Programme     Deadline: 21 May 2025     Details: Medium & Fast Mission Call
5. Job Opportunities
2 PhD positions and 1 Postdoctoral Researcher position will soon be available at the Academy of Athens as part of the HFRI funded project "Gravitational Wave Events with Neutron Stars: From Nuclear Physics to Cosmology" (PI: A. Nathanail). Students nearing completion of their Master's degree are eligible and encouraged to apply. Interested candidates are encouraged to reach out Dr. Nathanail for further details (email). 11 PhD positions on the feeding and feedback cycle of supermassive black holes are available at 10 astronomy groups across Europe from September 2025 as part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action Doctorate Network TALES (Time-domain Analysis to study the Life-cycle and Evolution of Supermassive black holes). Details and application information can be found at the links below: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/280409 https://www.star.bris.ac.uk/TALES/ or via email to Antonis Georgakakis (age@noa.gr).
6. Upcoming Astronomy Meetings and Schools in Greece
UniverseAI: Exploring the Universe with Artificial Intelligence June 2-6, 2025, Amphitheater G. Karabatzos, Harokopio University of Athens, Greece 2025 Summer School for Astrostatistics in Crete 16-20 June, Department of Physics, University of Crete, Heraklion 17th Hel.A.S. Conference 30 June - 2 July 2025, Conference and Cultural Center of the University of Patras, Greece Extragalactic Jets in Crete 2025 25 - 29 August 2025, Heraklion, Crete
7. 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 May 1, 2025. Please send your announcements (e.g., appointments / departures, job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece) or comments before April 25, 2025. 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.