TOPICS

Short News Change of date in the ESA call of ideas Greek representation in international committees The NEON Observing School ESA Postdoctoral Fellowship Cassini Postdoc in the Academy of Athens Precolombian civilizations in Atacama and modern Astronomy Upcoming Astronomy meetings in Greece About this Newsletter

1.SHORT NEWS

The Council of the Hel.A.S. would like to wish to all its members and their families Merry CHRISTMAS and a Happy, Healthy and Productive NEW YEAR 2006. We would like to congratulate Drs. Costis Gontikakis and Spiros Vasilakos who were recently elected as Researchers C' in the Research Center for Astronomy & Applied Mathematics of the Academy of Athens. We would like to congratulate Dr. Kleomenis Tsiganis who was recently elected as a Lecturer at the Department of Physics of the University of Thessaloniki. We would like to congratulate Dr. Athanasios Katsiyiannis who was recently elected to the position of Researcher D' in the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the National Observatory of Athens. We would like to congratulate Dr. Panagiotis Boumis who was recently promoted to the position of Researcher C' in the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the National Observatory of Athens.

2. CHANGE OF DATE IN THE ESA CALL FOR IDEAS

The deadline of the call for expression of ideas for projects related to ESA has moved to February 17, 2006. For more information on the details of the call please visit http://www.gsrt.gr/default.asp?V_ITEM_ID=4272 or http://www.astro.auth.gr/elaset/esa

3.GREEK REPRESENTATION IN INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEES

Prof. J. Ventura (Univ. Crete), who served for many years as the Greek representative to the Board of Directors of the international Journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, has recently retired from the Univ. of Crete. After accepting the nomination of the President of the Greek National Committee for Astronomy, Prof. P. Laskaridis, Dr. Nikos Prantzos (IAP, France) will be the new greek member to the A&A Board. Prof. Nick Kylafis was nominated as a substitute greek representative to the Optical Infrared Coordination Network for Astronomy (OPTICON) while Prof. John Seiradakis continues his service as our national representative to OPTICON.

4.THE NEON OBSERVING SCHOOLS

In 2006 two Network of European Observatories in the North (NEON) schools in observational astrophysics will take place Following the tradition of the four previous observing schools one will take place at the Haute-Provence Observatory (France), from July 23 to August 6, 2006 and will be focused on practical observational experience. As in the past the school will consist of introductory lectures on topics of general interest, work in small groups, execution of a real research project, and presentation of the results at the end of the school. One more NEON school, the second Archive Observing School will take place at ESO-Garching (Germany) from August 30 to September 6, 2006.The application deadline is April 30, 2006. The school is open to PhD students in Astronomy or Post-docs with limited observing experience from all over Europe. Selection of candidates will be made by the steering committee. The school is mainly funded through an EU Marie-Curie program. Students from EU countries (or Associated Countries) can therefore benefit from grants to participate in this school. This grant will cover the local expenses, but probably not the travel costs (or only part of it). For more information and application material visit http://www2.iap.fr/eas/neon6.html

5. ESA POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP

The European Space Agency (ESA) invites applications for an internal research fellowship at ESTEC in Noordwijk, Netherlands. Part of the fellowship will be funded through the European Solar Magnetism Network (ESMN), which is part of the European Commission's current Training and Research Networks (RTN) programme. The ESMN goal is to gain basic insight in the roots of solar magnetism by establishing the structure and dynamics of magnetic fields at the solar surface, charting the patterns that constrain the solar dynamo, and identifying the magnetic coupling between the different solar regimes from the interior to the corona. The ESMN integrates the utilisation of the European solar telescopes on the Canary Islands with space observations (in particular from SOHO), data interpretation, and theoretical analysis. Applications should be sent to bfleck(at)esa.nascom.nasa.gov before January 15, 2006. Certain conditions (nationality/age) apply.

6. CASSINI POSTDOC AT THE ACADEMY OF ATHENS

A position for a Post-doctoral research associate at the Academy of Athens is available effective as early as February 1, 2006. The work involves analyses of data from the MIMI (Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument) currently in orbit around Saturn. Information about the MIMI investigation team can be found at http://sd-www.jhuapl.edu/CASSINI/. The position requires a PhD in space plasma physics, good knowledge of magnetospheric physics, data analyses techniques, and ability to present technical talks in English to international scientific audiences. The work will be directed by Stamatis Krimizis, Akadimaikos, who is Principal Investigator for the MIMI investigation. If interested, please sent a CV via email to both tom.krimigis@jhuapl.edu and to skrimizis@academyofathens.gr . The work is funded by a NASA contract via the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, and is for one year with possible renewals of up to three years.

7. PRECOLOMBIAN CIVILIZATION IN ATACAMA AND MODERN ASTRONOMY

The Chilean Embassy in Athens presents an exhibition about the Precolombian civilizations of the Atacama desert at the north of Chile and, in collaboration with Dr. Eleni Chatzichristou, an exhibition about the development of modern Astronomy in the same area. It will include rich photographic material, exact copies of mummies created by archeologists of the Santiago University, projection of slides, backlits and posters of the various telescope installations in Chile and some of the most impressive photos of the southern sky. The exhibition will take place at the Athens Syntagma Metro exhibition room during January 10-16, 2006 and will be preceded on January 9, 2006, by two lectures given by Mr. Martin Donoso and Dr. Eleni Chatzichristou at the Cultural Center of the Municipality of Athens (Akadimias 50). The exhibition will then move to Thessaloniki, where it will remain at the Municipal Gallery during 23 Jan-19 Feb. 2006. The exhibition in Athens is organized with the kind support of the Greek Ministry of Transport, the company Attiko Metro, the Camara Heleno-Chilena de Comercio y de Cultura and the Municipality of Athens. To read the full press-release check: http://www.astro.noa.gr/~echatz/DeltioTypou_Photos.doc For more information: http://americalatina.gr/php/articles.php?lng=gr&pg=197 and http://www.momiaschinchorro.com

8. UPCOMING ASTRONOMY MEETINGS IN GREECE

The following meetings will take place in Greece. Please check the corresponding web page or contact the organizers by e-mail for more information.

International Conference on Archaeoastronomy Rhodes Rhodes, 6-10 April 2006 Galaxy Evolution with Spitzer and Herschel Agios Nikolaos, Crete, 28 May-2 June 2006

9.ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER

This Newsletter was edited by Vassilis Charmandaris and Kanaris Tsinganos. It was forwarded to the 251, out of the 271, members of Hel.A.S. who have e-mail access. The next edition of the Newsletter will be mailed around February 1st 2006. Please send your announcements (e.g. appointments/departures, job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece) or comments before January 25, 2006. All correspondence concerning the Newsletter should be addressed to: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.