JUNE 2018 - TOPICS

Short News Upcoming 36th General Assembly and Hel.A.S. Elections Nature Research Awards SCOSTEP NSP Call for Feedback Europlanet Outreach Innovation Day in Athens Memoirs of Astronomical Excursions at Pertouli XXX Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics Student and Postdoctoral Research Opportunities Abroad Upcoming Astronomy Meetings in Greece About this Newsletter

1. Short News

The Society would like to congratulate Ordinary Member Georgia Virginia (Gina) Panopoulou for receiving the IAU PhD Prize for 2017. Dr. Panopoulou successfully completed her Thesis, entitled "Structure and Evolution of Magnetic Molecular Clouds, Observational Consequences and Tests" in March 2017 at the University of Crete, under the supervision of Ordinary Member Konstantinos Tassis. Dr. Panopoulou is currently a postdoctoral researcher at CalTech. The Society most sincerely commends Dr. Panopoulou for this significant distinction and extends its best wishes to her for further successes in her scientific endeavors. The Society would like to remind Junior Members of the upcoming June 20, 2018 deadline for travel support for the second half of 2018. It also clarifies that, exceptionally, it can consider support applications submitted by Associate Members, should available funds suffice and the applying student makes a case that the requested travel support is important for the student's further development and / or the completion of his / her Master's Thesis. More information about the Society's travel grants can be found here.

2. Upcoming 36th General Assembly and Hel.A.S. Elections

This is the final reminder by the Governing Council of Hel.A.S. that the next, 36th General Assembly of the Society will take place on Friday, June 22, 2018 at the Society's legal base, namely the Section of Astrophysics, Astronomy and Mechanics of the Physics Department at the University of Athens. The Assembly will convene at 09:30. If no quorum is achieved at this time, the Assembly will adjourn and reconvene at 13:30, regardless of quorum, as per Article 42 of the Society's Constitution.  The General Assembly will conclude with the Society's elections for the next Governing Council, mandated for the term 2018 - 2020. All Ordinary and Junior Society members should by now possess the relevant mailed envelope including, besides the Assembly's formal agenda, all election-related instructions and guidelines. The CVs and interest notes of all candidates for the new Council of the Society can be found here. The Governing Council wishes to reiterate that Ordinary and Junior Members who wish to participate in the election, either in person or via an absentee ballot, should be in good financial standing. This means that membership fees up to 2017 should be covered by the election date.  Both the Society's future and standing rely on a robust election turnout; for this reason, Members are strongly encouraged to fulfill this financial requirement that will validate their voting rights. Outstanding fees can be paid online, or via bank transfer at the following account of Peiraeus Bank: IBAN: GR42 0172 0390 0050 3903 3722 178 For questions or inquiries with respect to membership fees, members should contact the Secretary or the Treasurer of the Society.

3. Nature Research Awards

It has come to the Society's attention that Springer Nature has launched two new Nature Research Awards: the Inspiring Science Award and the Innovating Science Award. The Inspiring Science Award celebrates an outstanding early career researcher who self-identifies as female. Nominations from around the globe and from all subject areas are encouraged. The Innovating Science Award will honor an individual, a group or an organization that has driven initiatives to encourage girls or young women to engage in STEM (i.e., Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) subjects. Candidates can apply for this award directly from any region around the world. The 2018 call for nominations/applications closes on June 11, 2018. More information and detailed descriptions of the application process can be found online. In addition, question or inquires can be directed to Ordinary Member Marios Karouzos, Nature's Associate Editor, here.

4. SCOSTEP NSP Call for Feedback

It has come to the Society's attention that the Bureau of the Scientific Committee on Solar - Terrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP) has established a committee to coordinate the design of SCOSTEP’s Next Scientific Program (NSP), which will cover the period from 2019 to 2022.  This committee has prepared a document describing the NSP, which is accessible here. The central scientific topic of the NSP is the predictability of the Sun-Earth system at various time scales. The NSP committee invites feedback from the scientific community, in the form of white papers, or short comments, or even verbally to one or more of the committee members, which are listed with their email addresses in the NSP document mentioned above. Please send your feedback until July 31, 2018. To encourage an open and transparent discussion, all white papers will be made publicly viewable here. In addition, there will be public opportunities to provide input at discussion sessions to be held at  - the Workshop “Solar Influences on the Magnetosphere, Ionosphere and Atmosphere” in Primorsko (Bulgaria) on 4-8 June - the SCOSTEP 14th Quadrennial Solar-Terrestrial Physics Symposium in Toronto (Canada) on 9-13 July - the 42nd COSPAR General Assembly in Pasadena, California (USA) on 14-22 July The NSP committee will use the feedback received to produce a second draft and issue another call for feedback in the autumn of 2018. The goal of the committee is to have a final description of the NSP by the end of February 2019.

5. Europlanet Outreach Innovation Day in Athens

Europlanet RI 2020 offers a series of Outreach Experts Workshops, namely best-practice meetings for a broad range of outreach providers and science communicators working both professionally and voluntarily to engage the public with planetary science. The workshops aim to build networks, share resources and best practice, brainstorm in order to develop new ideas for effective communication and to keep in touch with the latest scientific achievements through contact with the broader scientific community. The next workshop, "Touching the Planets, Evaluating Excellence", will be held in Athens on July 2-3, 2018. This year, the workshop will target primarily (but not exclusively) an audience of amateur astronomers and will focus on evaluation of outreach activities. The meeting venue is the University of Athens' Kostis Palamas Building (Akadimias 48 & Sina Steet), in downtown Athens. A total of up to 30 attendees will be selected for travel support, if residing outside the Attica region. More information and instructions on registration can be found online, here , or by e-mail, here.

6. Memoirs of Astronomical Excursions at Pertouli

For the benefit and information of its younger members, the Society is pleased to publicize an essay composed by Founding Ordinary Member Stavros Avgoloupis, on his memoirs of the educational excursions near Pertouli village, at the Pindos mountain range, in the framework of the Observational Astronomy courses offered at the Physics Department of the University of Thessaloniki. Excursions were organized jointly for more than 20 years by Profs. Avgoloupis and John-Hugh Seiradakis, another Founding Ordinary Member and former President of the Society. The essay refers extensively to the organization, settings and implementation of the excursions and related astronomical observations, as well as to the numerous students who enthusiastically engaged, many of which are now active and energetic faculty and staff members at key institutions around the world. The astronomical excursions at Pertouli stood out as a prime motivation among physics students in Thessaloniki to select the non-mandatory course on Observational Astronomy and to get in better touch with Astronomy and Astrophysics. In many cases, this acquaintance led to prolific careers in these fields, strengthening the Society and the national presence in the global scientific stage. Sincerely thanking Prof. Avgoloupis for this initiative, the essay is made available here.

7. XXX Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics

The XXX Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics, organized by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) focuses on Big Data Analysis in Astronomy. The School will be held in San Cristobal de La Laguna (Tenerife, Spain) in November 4 - 10, 2018 and will admit around 60 - 70 PhD students and young Post-Docs. In a relaxed environment, the School will offer participants the opportunity to learn from world-renowned specialists about techniques used in Astronomy in the analysis of Big Data. Participants of the Winter School will have the opportunity to highlight their current work by presenting a poster. The duration of the School, including the visits to the observatories, is equivalent to a total of 30 hours. The deadline for both registration and applications is June 17, 2018. More information about the School can be found here.

8. Student and Postdoctoral Research Opportunities Abroad

The list below may be refreshed or updated with further established lists: AAS Pre-Doctoral / Graduate positions here. AAS PostDoctoral Positions and Fellowships here. EAS Job Directory (choose "PhD positions" or "Academic jobs" accordingly) here. EAS School Directory here. IAU Careers in Astronomy here. Careers and research fellowship opportunities at ESA here. Careers at NASA here. ESO Recruitment Portal here. CERN opportunities for students here. CERN opportunities for graduates here. Graduate programs at Chilean Universities here. Summer Colloquium, Solar Spectropolarimetry and Diagnostic Techniques here. Summer School, Advanced Topics in MHD here. NEW XXX Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics here. NEW STFC-Supported PhD Projects in Astrophysics and Space Science at MSSL, UCL here. Any Member of the Society who wishes to contribute another credible link with opportunities, or individual opportunities that will, however, be shown in a single-liner format as above, is encouraged to contact the Secretary of the Society.

9. Upcoming Astronomy Meetings in Greece

Europlanet Outreach Innovation Day: Touching the Planets - Evaluating Excellence,  Kostis Palamas Bldg., downtown Athens, 2 - 3 July, 2018 Supernova Remnants II: An Odyssey in Space After Stellar Death,  Chania, Crete, 3 - 8 June, 2019 Zooming in on Star Formation,  Vouleftikon, Nafplio, 9 - 14 June, 2019

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 July 1, 2018.  Please send your announcements (e.g., appointments / departures, job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece) or comments before June 25, 2018. 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.