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HELLENIC ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER
NUMBER 78 August 2004
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E-mail: elaset@astro.auth.gr WWW: http://www.astro.auth.gr/elaset
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TOPICS:
1. Short News
2. Agreement on Greece's accession to the ESA Convention signed
3. Job Opening
4. The online directory of Hel.A.S.
5. The New Governing Council of Hel.A.S.
6. Project on "Astronomical Heritage in Europe"
7. Upcoming Astronomy meetings in Greece
8. About this newsletter
1. SHORT NEWS
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We would like to congratulate Dr. Nikolaos Stergioulas (Univ. of
Thessaloniki) who was recently promoted to assistant professor at
the Department of Physics, Section of Astrophysics Astronomy and
Mechanics.
After the addition of six new members our Society now has a total
of 259 members. Of those 205 are Ordinary members, 42 are Junior
and 12 are Associate. Nearly 90% of the members are affiliated with
academic institutions and have e-mail access. For more details and
statistics on the members visit the web page of the society.
2. AGREEMENT ON GREECE's ACCESSION TO THE ESA CONVENTION SIGNED
---------------------------------------------------------------
The 19th of July, Mr Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA Director General,
and Mr Dimitris Sioufas, the Greek Minister for Development, signed
the Agreement on Greece's accession to the ESA Convention, at the
Agency's Paris Headquarters. Greece formally applied to join ESA in
September 2003. Under the Accession Agreement, it will become a full
member state by December 2005 at the latest, following a transition
period. "We warmly welcome Greece to the European Space Agency and
we look forward to the new member statefruitfully extending its
participation in various fields, including the new space programmes
Europe is preparing for the future", said Jean-Jacques Dordain.
Greece is already participating in telecommunication programmes,
Global Monitoring for Environment and Security and technology
activities under a Cooperation Agreement which came into force in
November 2001. We hope that Astronomy and Astrophysics in Greece will
benefit from this membership too.
Greece becomes the 16th member of ESA, the only EU member together
with Luxemburg which was not a member so far. The other ESA members are :
Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy,
Holland, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Great Britain.
ESA which was founded 35 years ago has its headquarters in Paris, has
a present budget of 2.7 billions Euros and a webpage :
http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP
3. JOB OPENING
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A new position at the level of "Assistant Professor" in the
research area of "Observational Astronomy" has opened in the
Dept. of Physics of the Univ. of Thessaloniki. (FEK 90, pages
567-568, 17 June 2004). The application deadline is September 1st,
2004. Please visit the web page of the Society for more information
on the application material.
4. THE ONLINE DIRECTORY OF HEL.A.S.
-----------------------------------
As we all know the online directory of Hel.A.S. available at:
http://www.astro.auth.gr/elaset/dir-cover.html
includes what the Secretary of Hel.A.S. considers to be the most
up-to-date information on the contact postal address, phone/fax
numbers and e-mail of each member. This information is used for all
correspondence of the Society with the members. Its value depends
critically on how accurate the information is. Even though we try to
ensure that all information is correct it is always up to the
individual member to let us know if some items of his/her personal
record have changed.
Thus, we would greatly appreciate if each member spends a minute
after he/she reads this e-mail to check in the above mentioned web
page the accuracy of his/her personal record. If you notice any
mistake or you would like to update some of the information (such as
include a personal web page or a fax number which may be missing)
please send an e-mail to the Secretary of the Society
Prof. Tsinganos (tsingan@phys.uoa.gr).
5. THE NEW GOVERNING COUNCIL OF HEL.A.S.
----------------------------------------
During the General Assembly of Hel.A.S. on June 21 2004, the new
Governing council was elected. Details on the results of the
elections were presented in the newsletter of July 2004 (#77). The
composition of the Council is:
President: Prof. Laskarides Paul (79 votes)
Council: Prof. Tsinganos Kanaris (49 votes)
Assoc. Prof. Theodossiou Efstratios (38 votes)
Assoc. Prof. Moussas Xenophon (31 votes)
Assoc. Prof. Kokkotas Kostas (26 votes)
Assist. Prof. Hatzidimitriou Despina (22 votes)
Prof. Geroyannis Vassilios (12 votes)
Note that according to Article 31 of the Constitution of Hel.A.S.,
at least 3 out of the 7 members of the Council have to reside outside
the Athens metro area. As a result, Prof. Geroyannis (Univ. of Patras)
takes the seventh position in the Council even though Dr. Daglis,
Dr. Georgantopoulos and Dr. Dara received more votes.
During the first meeting of the new Council on July 8th 2004,
Dr. Despoina Hatzidimitriou, was appointed vice-president of the
Society while Dr. Tsinganos and Dr. Theodossiou remained as Secretary
and Treasurer, respectively. Dr. Kokkotas was proposed as the new
Editor of Hipparchos, while Dr. Tsinganos and Dr. Charmandaris
remained the editors of the monthly electronic newsletter of the
society.
6. PROJECT ON "ASTRONOMICAL HERITAGE IN EUROPE"
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In the following we include an announcement of Dr. Magda Stavinschi
(Romania) regarding plans for a EU network on the astronomical
heritage in Europe. Members of Hel.A.S. who are interested may
contact Dr. Stavinschi in the address listed at the end of this
section.
"Astronomical Heritage in Europe"
Proposal for an European Project
Every country owns a rich cultural heritage with astronomical
significance. Cosmic symbols and strong evidences of astronomical
knowledge can be found everywhere, from drawings in caverns and
religious sanctuaries to sundials, manuscripts, books, astronomical
instruments or observatories. To our surprise, there is not a
databank dedicated to this heritage yet. That is why we intend to
propose a European project (FP6 - coordination action) within whose
framework astronomers, historians, architects, ethnographers
identify any object with astronomical value and register it into a
databank. This one will then be put at the disposal of anyone who
wants to be documented in this domain or to contribute to the
capitalization of the national cultural heritage within today's
globalization. So far specialists from many European countries
joined this tentative. Hoping that also your country intends to
contribute to the project "Astronomical Heritage in Europe", please
contact us:
Dr. Magda Stavinschi, Director Astronomical Institute of the
Romanian Academy Bucharest, Str. Cutitul de Argint 5, RO-040557
e-mail: magda@danof.obspm.fr, magda@aira.astro.ro
http://www.astro.ro
7. UPCOMING ASTRONOMY MEETINGS IN GREECE
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The following meetings will take place in Greece in the coming
months. Please check the corresponding web pages or contact the
organizers by e-mail for more information.
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''The Environments of Galaxies:from Kiloparsecs to Megaparsecs"
Chania, Crete 9-13 August 2004
More information at:
http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/conferences/crete2004/
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8. ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER
------------------------
This Newsletter was edited by Vassilis Charmandaris and Kanaris
Tsinganos. It was forwarded to the 237, out of the 259, members of
Hel.A.S. who have e-mail access.
The next edition of the Newsletter will be mailed around September 1st
2004. Please send your announcements (e.g. appointments/departures,
job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece)
or comments before August 25, 2004. 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.
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