January 2026 - TOPICS
Short News ESO Summer Research Programme 2026 Announcements of Opportunity for Guest Investigator in the Proba-3 Mission Involvement in ESA Space Science Programs Update Member Information Upcoming Astronomy Meetings and Schools in Greece About this Newsletter
1. Short News
The GC wishes to all members of Hel.A.S. a Happy, Healthy and Productive New Year 2026!  The Society would like to congratulate Dr. Alexios Liakos, Dr. Manolis Xylouris, and Dr. Alceste Bonanos who were recently awarded the "2025 Prize in Memory of Academician Ioannis N. Xanthakis" in the thematic area of Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Space Sciences, by the Academy of Athens for their scientific paper entitled “NELIOTA: New results and updated statistics after 6.5 years of lunar impact flash monitoring". We would like to congratulate Dr. Elias Kyritsis, who was recently awarded his PhD from the Department of Physics, for  receiving the Eleftherios N. Ekonomou Research Award for the year 2025. Mr. Kyritsis received the award for his work "The first all-sky survey of star-forming galaxies with eROSITA: Scaling relations and a population of X-ray luminous starbursts," which was published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics in 2025. We would like to congratulate Dr. Nikolaos Karnesis for receiving a grant through the "4th Call for Research Projects of the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) for the support of Postdoctoral Researchers" for his proposed research program entitled "Probing the properties of the Galaxy with Gravitational Radiation". We would like to congratulate Charalampos Daoutis for successfully completing his PhD thesis entitled "Multi-wavelength diagnostics of galaxy activity and interstellar medium properties in diverse star-forming environments” at the Department of Physics of the University of Crete under the supervision of Prof. Anreas Zezas. Dr. Daoutis moved to the University of Geneva (Switzerland) with a postdoctoral fellowship in January. The Society extends its best wishes to Dr. Daoutis for further successes in his professional pursuits.
2. ESO Summer Research Programme 2026
We would like to inform our members that the call for applications for the 8th ESO Summer Research Programme is now open. This fully funded program is available to students in STEM fields who have not yet started a Ph.D. program and have completed at least two years of their degree. For more information, visit this webpage.
3. Announcement of Opportunity for Guest Investigators in the Proba-3 Mission
We would like to inform our members, on behalf of Prof. C. Mundell, Director of Science, about the Announcement of Opportunity for Guest Investigators in the Proba-3 mission. The Announcement of Opportunity, containing the information needed by the proposers, can be found at: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/proba-3-ao-2025 The deadline for submission of proposals is 12 February 2026 at 12:00 (noon) CET. Proposals must be submitted electronically to ESA as indicated at:  https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/proba-3-ao-2025
4. Involvement in ESA Space Science Programs
Prof. Ioannis A. Daglis, national delegate of Greece to the ESA Science Programme Committee, would like to invite our members to submit short descriptions of personal or group involvement in space science programs of the European Space Agency (ESA) with a double purpose: i. to be used for information material to be displayed at the “Space Exhibition” organized by the Hellenic Space Center, which will take place in March 2026 at the Syntagma Metro Station (Athens) ii. (in the case of proposed or planned space missions) to be followed closely at the meeting of the ESA Science Programme Committee (SPC). Please send your (brief) feedback before the end of January 2026 if possible, to iadaglis@uoa.gr
5. Update Member Information
All members are strongly encouraged to check their information on the Society's webpage and contact the Secretary if any updates are needed. Your prompt feedback for any address/institution changes is essential in order to keep this directory up to date.
6. Upcoming Astronomy Meetings and Schools in Greece
MuMeNTA: Multi-Messenger Numerical Techniques in Astrophysics 2-4 March 2026, Athens, Harokopeio University 5th Olympian Symposium: The Evolution of Interstellar Medium Across Cosmic Times 18-22 May 2026, Paralia Katerini 16th Quadrennial Solar-Terrestrial Physics Symposium 1-5 June 2026, Thessaloniki Note: The weekend before the conference a school for young scientists will be held. 6th Hel.A.S. Astrophysics Summer School 24 - 28 August, Athens, Physics Department
7. 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 February 1, 2026. Please send your announcements (e.g., appointments / departures, job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece) or comments before January 25, 2026. 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.