HELLENIC ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER
NUMBER 68 October 2003
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E-mail: elaset@astro.auth.gr WWW: http://www.astro.auth.gr/elaset
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TOPICS:
1. The 6th Hellenic Astronomical Conference
2. The General Assembly of HelAS
3. New Members of Hel.A.S.
4. Job Opening
5. Debate on Possible Hazards from Near Earth Objects (NEO)
6. Upcoming Astronomy meetings in Greece
7. About this newsletter...
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1. THE 6th HELLENIC ASTRONOMICAL CONFERENCE
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As you already know, in the period September 15 - 17th, the
Hel.A.S. organised its 6th Hellenic Astronomical Conference at the
National Observatory of Athens, in Penteli. From the 157 colleagues
that had pre-registered, 138 (from Greece and other 10 countries)
were able to finally attend the conference.
The President and Hon. President of HelAS, prof. P. Laskarides and
Academician G. Contopoulos, respectively, made some opening remarks,
followed by the Vice-rector of the Univ. of Athens,
prof. D. Asimakopoulos who complemented the work of the Univ. of
Athens members of HelAS and promised that the Un. of Athens will
print the Proceedings of the conference.
The HelAS invited speakers presented excellent review talks at the
beginning of the corresponding session: E.N. Parker on MHD
Discontinuities and X-ray Coronae in Astrophysics, S. Wagner on the
variability of AGN and Quasars via multiwavelength observations,
J. Kirk on relativistic flows and particle acceleration and
P. Grosbol on what can we learn from near-infrared observations of
spiral galaxies. The selected session main invited discourses were
also characterized by originality, while most of the contributions
and posters were at the cutting edge of research in modern Astronomy
and Astrophysics.
During the Conference a total of 163 papers were presented. The
"HelAS Invited", "Session Main", "Contributed" and "Poster" papers
were distributed among the various fields as follows:
-Sun and the Heliosphere (1, 3, 14, 15)
-Galactic Dynamics and Chaotic Dynamical Systems (-, 2, 4, 12)
-Extragalactic Astronomy (1, 3, 10, 5)
-Cosmology, Relativity & Relativistic Astrophysics (-, 2, 10, -)
-High Energy Astrophysics (1, 1, 10, 5)
-History and Teaching of Astronomy (-, 1, 9, 11)
-Infrastructure of Astronomy in Greece (1, -, 12, 7)
-Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (-, 2, 5, 16)
2. THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF HelAS
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- The General Assembly of HelAS took place in the last day,
Sept. 17th, of the 6th Hellenic Astronomical Conference at the
National Observatory of Athens, in Penteli. In the beginning, the
President of the Society, on behalf of the Governing Council, thanked
the members of the Scientific and Local Organizing Committees for
their efforts towards a successful Conference. The Secretary of
HelAS, highlighted that the 6th Hellenic Astronomical Conference was
characterized by (i) the high level of the invited and the great
majority of contributed presentations and (ii) by the large
participation of young astronomy researchers and students. Hence,
the future of Greek Astronomy may appear rather promising.
- Prof. J. H. Seiradakis the president of the previous Greek
National Committee of Astronomy (GNCA), announced that the joint
efforts by the GNCA and the Governing Council of HelAS for a more
representative appointment by the State of the GNCA were successful
and the new members of the GNCA who have just been nominated include
the President and the Secretary of HelAS. He also announced the new
GNCA members: J. Seiradakis (Chairman), J. Ventura, P.G. Laskarides,
K. Tsinganos, E. Harlaftis, while J. Daglis, M. Kafatos,
S. Katsanevas, E. Plionis and N. Prantzos were appointed as
substitute members.
- The General Assembly unanimously declared its strong support for
the installation of a radio telescope in Greece, as suggested by
prof. N. Spyrou.
- The island of Cefallonia was selected as the place of the next
(7th) HelAS Astronomical Conference and Dr. N. Solomos accepted the
responsibility to organize it locally.
- 8 new ordinary, 6 new Junior members of the Society as well as 6
new associated members were elected, while 4 members withdrew their
membership in the society. Their names are given below.
3. NEW MEMBERS OF HEL.A.S.
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The 20 new members of Hel.A.S. who were elected during the General
Assembly of HelAS, September 17th, 2003 are :
- New Ordinary Members (8):
1. Dr. Rigopoulou Dimitra (UK)
2. Dr. Paschalidis Nick (USA)
3. Dr. Tsamis Giannis (France)
4. Dr. Dvorak Rudolph (Austria)
5. Dr. Romeou Zacharenia (UK)
6. Dr. Georgakakis Antonis (Greece)
7. Dr. Archontis Vassilis (Spain)
8. Dr. Tsokaros Antonis (USA)
- New Junior Members (6):
1. Papadopoulos Nikolaos (AUTh, Greece)
2. Lazaridis Matthew (UoA, Greece)
3. Niarchou Anastasia (Imperial, UK)
4. Bonanos Alceste (CfA, USA)
5. Gaga Theodora (UoA, Greece)
6. Emmanoulopoulos Dimitris (Heidelberg, Germany)
- The following 12 Junior members moved to the Ordinary status, having
fulfilled the requirements described in the constitution:
1. Kitsionas Spyros
2. Manimanis Vassilios
3. Tsagouri Ioanna
4. Kalimeris Anastasios
5. Alevizos Aris
6. Karastergiou Aris
7. Koukouli MariLiza
9. Boudouridis Athanasios
10. Tsiganis Menios
11. Misiriotis Angelos
12. Malandraki Olga
- New Associate members (6):
1. Makris Dimitrios
2. Zacharopoulou Olga
3. Pirlis Orestis
4. Dimitrakoudis Stavros
5. Rigos Alexandros
6. Georgiou Marina
- Finally, 4 members requested to terminate their affiliation with
the Society and they were removed from the membership list. These
were D. Christodoulou, J. Contopoulos, V. Grammatikos and
Th. Christidis.
As a result the number of members of Hel.A.S. has been increased.
All above changes will be reflected in the web server of Hel.A.S.
(http://www.astro.auth.gr/elaset/statistics.html) within the next few days.
4. JOB OPENING
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A new tenured track position at the level of "Assistant Professor"
or "Lecturer" in the field of "Astrophysics" has opened at the
Department of Physics of the University of Thessaloniki. The
application deadline is November 10, 2003.
For more information contact:
The Secretary, Dept. of Physics, Univ. of Thessaloniki,
GR-54006 Thessaloniki, Greece,
Tel. +30 2310 998120, Fax. +30 2310 998122
5. DEBATE ON POSSIBLE HAZARDS FROM NEAR EARTH OBJECTS
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The British Council and the Section of Astrophysics, Astronomy and
Mechanics of the Department of Physics of the University of
Thessaloniki organise a public debate on the hazards created by
heavenly objects orbiting near Earth such as comets and asteroids,
but also by man-made space objects (space junk).
The meeting will comprise presentations by UK and Greek experts and
discussion with the audience. The debate marks the 60th anniversary
of the Astronomy Dept. and it will take place on Friday, 28 November
2003 at 16:30 at the Central Municipal Library Hall, 27 Ethnikis
Aminis Str. in Thessaloniki.
6. UPCOMING ASTRONOMY MEETINGS IN GREECE
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The following meetings will take place in Greece in the coming
months. Please check the corresponding web pages or contact the
organizers by e-mail for more information.
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3rd Conference of Greek Amateur Astronomers
"Astronomy from ancient times to the future"
Paliouri, Chalkidiki 17-19 October 2003
More information at:
http://www.ofa.gr/synedrio/
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7. ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER
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This Newsletter was edited by Vassilis Charmandaris and Kanaris
Tsinganos. It was forwarded to the 219, out of the 237, members of
Hel.A.S. who have e-mail access.
The next edition of the Newsletter will be mailed around November 1st
2003. Please send your announcements (e.g. appointments/departures,
job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece)
or comments before October 25, 2003. All correspondence concerning
the Newsletter should be addressed to:
elaset@astro.auth.gr, or, tsingan@phys.uoa.gr
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
let us know.
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END-------HELLENIC ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER--------END
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