OCTOBER 2011 - TOPICS

Short News The 10th Hellenic Astronomical Conference The 29th General Assembly of Hell.A.S. "Best PhD" Award of Hel.A.S. Hel.A.S. committee on Education and Outreach Hipparchos new and future issues Exchanges under the "Black Holes in a Violent Universe" COST action IMPRS School on Astrophysics in Garching Upcoming Astronomy Meetings in Greece About this Newsletter

1. SHORT NEWS

We would like to congratulate Dr. Marios Karouzos, who was awarded the 2011 "Best PhD Award" of the German Astronomical Society (Astronomische Gesellschaft). We would like to congratulate Dr. P. Ranalli (University of Bologna) who was recently awarded a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship within the action “Support of post-doctoral researchers” of GSRT. Most members of the Society who attended the 10th Conference of Hel.A.S. had the possibility to pay their past membership dues on site. Members who did not attend the Conference and/or have not yet paid their membership for the years 2011 and/or 2010 are kindly requested to do so before the end of October 2011, or contact the Treasurer Prof. Vlahakis (phone: +30 210 7276903, e-mail: treasurer@helas.gr).

2. THE 10th HELLENIC ASTRONOMICAL CONFERENCE

Well over 100 participants from Greek Institutes, as well as from abroad, attended the 10th Conference of Hel.A.S., which took place in Ioannina last month. The Governing Council of Hel.A.S. would like to thank the Local Organizing Committee, as well as all participants, who made this conference a success. Almost all of the oral, and some of the poster, presentations are available on line in the conference's web page (http://www.helas.gr/conf/2011/). For the remaining participants who wish to upload their poster presentation in our web site, please send your file to Dr. Anastasiadis (anastasi@noa.gr) by October 31st. All the abstracts of both the oral and poster presentations that were presented in the conference will be linked to NASA/ADS in November 2011. We all look forward to the 11th Conference in 2013!

3. THE 29th GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF HEL.A.S.

The 29th General Assembly of Hel.A.S. took place on September 6, 2011, during the 10th Conference of the Society. All members are strongly encouraged to read the minutes of the assembly, which are available online as a PDF file at the end of the web page: http://www.helas.gr/council.php.

4. "BEST PhD" AWARD OF HEL.A.S.

The Governing Council of Hel.A.S. announces the "Best PhD" competition for the period 2011-2013. All Ordinary and Associate Members of the Society can nominate candidates for the competition, by sending a message to the Secretary (secretary@helas.gr). The Nominees must be members of our Society who have defended successfully their PhD in the period from 1st of August 2011 until 31st of July 2013. Each nomination should be accompanied by a CV of the nominee, with a list of publications and conference presentations of the work associated with the PhD, and a 3 page (max) summary of the PhD research work. The announcement of the Award recipient will be made in early August 2013. The Award winner will be given an oral talk in the Conference, and financial support to attend a conference in Greece or in Europe. For further information, please contact the Society's Secretary Prof. Papadakis (phone: +30 2810 394213, e-mail: secretary@helas.gr).

5. HEL.A.S. COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND PUBLIC OUTREACH

The Governing Council of Hel.A.S. has appointed Pof. L. Vlahos, Dr. C. Efthimiopoulos, Dr. M. Metaxa, Prof. P. Niarchos, and Prof. J. Seiradakis as members of the "Education and Public Outreach Committee" (EPOC) of the Society. Prof. Vlahos will act as the Chair of the Committee. EPOC will be responsible for the coordination of the Society's members who wish to get involved in the preparation of Astronomy related "research projects" suitable for High Scool pupils, as well as for the development of an "Outreach" page in the Society's web page. More information will be announced in forthcoming Newsletters.

6. HIPPARCHOS NEW AND FUTURE ISSUE

The new issue of Hipparchos (Vol. 2, Issue 8) was distributed to the participants of the 10th Conference of HelAS and will be mailed shortly to all remaining members. You can also access the issue on line in our web site. The editorial committee of Hipparchos would like to remind all Hel.A.S. members that they can act as contributors in future issues, by sending us information regarding important activities in which our members are involved (astronomical projects, conferences, prizes, publications etc.) and which you consider worth being communicated to the broader body of the Hel.A.S. A short account (up to two pages) of the scientific context related to such announcements should be send directly to the editor Prof. L. Vlahos (vlahos@astro.auth.gr), or to one of the editorial committee members C. Efthymiopoulos (cefthim@academyofathens.gr) or G. Tsiropoula (georgia@space.noa.gr). Please consult past Hipparchos issues on what is the right "spirit" of such short articles. Contributions intended to appear in the next Hipparchos issue should be received by the end of February 2012.

7. EXCHANGES UNDER THE "BLACK HOLES IN A VIOLENT UNIVERSE" COST ACTION PROGRAM

The European COST action "Black Holes in a Violent Universe" has announced the fourth call for applications to fund exchange visits between scientists in Institutes which are located in a country which participates in this COST action (Greece is a participant country). Support will be provided to visits which aim to strengthen current collaborative projects, establish new collaborations, obtain necessary knowledge for the application of new techniques, and/or use host infrastructures that are not available at the home institute. The applicant could be either a PhD student, a PostDoc or a staff member in an organization of either the public or the private sector. Only projects related to one of the main research areas supported by the action ("Quantum black holes", "stellar mass black holes & pulsars", "the Galactic center", and "supermassive black holes") will be considered. For further information, please check the action's web site: http://www.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/div/vlbi/COST.

8. IMPRS SCHOOL ON ASTROPHYSICS IN GARCHING

The International Max-Planck Research School on Astrophysics (IMPRS) in Garching/Munich (Bavaria, Germany) is soliciting applications for its PhD program. For more information, please check the School's web page at: http://www.imprs-astro.mpg.de/

9. UPCOMING ASTRONOMY MEETINGS IN GREECE

The Labyrinth of Star Formation Crete, 18 – 22 June 2012 BUKS2012:MHD Waves and Seismology of the Solar Atmosphere Crete, 4 – 7 July 2012

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 November 1, 2011. Please send your announcements (e.g. appointments/departures, job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece) or comments before October 25, 2011. 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.