FEBRUARY 2016 - TOPICS

Short News Election of Hel.A.S. The 2nd Hel.A.S. Astrophysics Summer School Hipparchos: Call for Articles The 2016 NEON Observing School The ISM-SPP Olympian School of Astrophysics 2016 The Leiden/ESA Astrophysics Program for Summer Students (LEAPS) 2016 Special Session and Symposium in EWASS 2016 Upcoming Astronomy Meetings in Greece About this Newsletter

1. Short News

We would like to congratulate Prof. George Magdis (Univ. of Copenhagen), a member of Hel.A.S., who has recently received the Villum Foundation’s Young Investigator Award to fund the activities of his research group. We would like to congratulate Dr Chryssa Kouveliotou, a distinguished member of our Society, for recently being awarded the Commander of the Order of Honor of the Hellenic Republic. The decoration was presented by Ambassador Christos Panagopoulos. Dr Kouveliotou has been a senior technologist in high-energy astrophysics at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and has received numerous awards for her work, including the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics for her personal contribution to NASA's advancement of United States' interests. She is a Professor at the Department of Physics at The George Washington University’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences.

2. Elections of Hel.A.S.

The Governing Council of Hel.A.S. convened on January 18th and decided that the next elections of Hel.A.S. will take place on June the 17th, 2016. The 34th General Assembly (GA) of the Society will also take place at the University of Athens, on the same day. According to Article 29 of our Constitution, all ordinary members of the Society who have no outstanding membership fees may nominate themselves or other ordinary members for the Council. The call for nominations as well as the nomination forms have been uploaded at the "News & Events" section of the web page of the Society. More information on the General Assembly agenda and the elections will become available in following newsletters. Please note that the nomination forms have to be returned to the Secretary of the Society by post, no later than February 29th 2016, as described in the Call.

3. The 2nd Hel.A.S. Astrophysics Summer School

We remind our members that the registration for the 2nd Hel.A.S. Astrophysics Summer School is now open. The School will take place in Athens, on July 11-15, 2016. We urge our senior members to advertise the School among our younger members and other interested parties. More information about the School can be found here.

4. Hipparchos: Call for Articles

The Editorial Board of Hipparchos wishes to invite Hel.A.S. members to submit articles or announcements that could be included in the forthcoming issue of Hipparchos. Those interested should contact the Editor of Hipparchos, Dr. Manolis Georgoulis, directly (manolis.georgoulis@academyofathens.gr).

5.  The 2016 NEON Observing School

The 2016 NEON Observing school will take place in Greece from June 19th to July 2nd, 2016. The school will focus on practical observations at the telescope, followed by data reduction and presentation of the scientific results. The preliminary program and the registration form are available here. The deadline for registration is March 31st, 2016

6.  The ISM-SPP Olympian School of Astrophysics 2016

This School is organized by the Olympian Centre for Astrophysics (OCfA) and will focus on the physics and chemistry of the galactic and extragalactic interstellar medium including star formation, and on astrochemistry from photoionized to photodissociation and molecular regions. The scope of the school is to gather young researchers, particularly PhD students, and early career scientists to discuss about theoretical, numerical, and observational aspects of the general field of the interstellar medium. The covered topics include: physics and dynamics of the Interstellar Medium (galactic, extragalactic), astrochemistry (photoionization, photodissociation, molecular regions), hydrodynamics (instabilities, turbulence, magnetic fields), star formation (from low-mass to high-mass stars, triggered and non-triggered), hydrodynamical simulations and comparison with observations. The School is kindly sponsored by ISM-SPP (DFG Priority Program 1573) (http://www.ism-spp.de) and will take place in the conference room of the "Mediterranean Village Hotel & Spa" which is located on the beach in Paralia Katerini's. For more information, please visit the school's web-page: http://school2016.olympiancfa.org/

7.  The Leiden/ESA Astrophysics Program for Summer Students (LEAPS) 2016

Leiden Observatory and ESA are pleased to welcome applications for the 4th edition of the LEAPS program. Applications are carried out through the application form given in the program's web-site and the deadline is scheduled for February 5, 2016. For more information and for sending your application, please visit the program's web-page.

8.  Special Session and Symposium in EWASS 2016

We would like to draw your attention to one Special Session and one Symposium, organized by members of our Society, in the framework of this year's EWASS: SS2: Solar-Terrestrial Coupling and Space Weather: State-of-the-Art and Future Prospects This Special Session (organized by: V. Archontis, I.A. Daglis, S. Patsourakos and A. Vourlidas) combines observations, data analysis, theory, and numerical simulations, to address the following questions/topics: (a) how does the coupling between solar magnetic fields and plasma flows power solar eruptions (b) how does the solar wind interact with the ejecta and how do the terrestrial and planetary magnetospheres react to the perturbed solar wind, and (c)  multi-scale observations of the Magnetosphere-Ionosphere-Thermosphere System.  Abstract submission deadline is 15 March, 2016. More info about SS2 can be found here.  Symposium S17: Magnetic Helicity in Sun and Stars: From Dynamo Action to Eruptive Phenomena This Symposium (organized by: M. Georgoulis, A. Nindos, and D. Nandi) will recap studies that have shaped and continue to shape the intricate topic of magnetic helicity, affording the well-acquainted or simply interested audience a succinct, top-level view of our understanding of the topic. Future prospects enabled by contemporary understanding will also be discussed. The Symposium will promote a balance between observational effects of helical manifestations and theory, emphasizing studies that embolden this connection. To remain attractive to both solar / space physicists and astrophysicists, it will also investigate the solar-stellar connection of helical manifestations in the universe. Abstract submission deadline is 15 March, 2016. More info about S17 can be found here.

9. Upcoming Astronomy Meetings in Greece

The following meetings are scheduled to take place in Greece during 2016: Escape of Lyman radiation from galactic labyrinths OAC, Kolymbari, Crete, 26-29 April, 2016 Astronomical Data Analysis 2016 Summer School Chania, 22-24 May, 2016 Statistical Challenges in 21st Century Cosmology Chania, 24-27 May, 2016 Supernova Remnants: An Odyssey in Space after Stellar Death Chania, Crete, 6-11 June, 2016 Hot spots in the XMM sky: Cosmology from X-ray to Radio Mykonos, 15-18 June, 2016 The 2016 NEON Observing School  Greece June 19- July 2, 2016 European Week of Astronomy and Space Science Athens, 4-8 July, 2016 2nd Hel.A.S. Summer School Athens, 11-15 July, 2016 17th NEB conference on “Recent Developments in Gravity” Mykonos, September 19-22, 2016 The ISM-SPP Olympian School of Astrophysics  Paralia Katerinis, October 3-7, 2016

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 March 1st, 2016. Please send your announcements (e.g. appointments/departures, job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece) or comments before February 26, 2016. 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.