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HELLENIC ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER
NUMBER 86 April 2005
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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. Job Openings
3. 7th Hel.A.S. Conference Plenary speakers
4. Hellas becomes 16th Full ESA Member State
5. Access to International Research Facilities
6. The NEON Observing School
7. Upcoming Astronomy meetings in Greece
8. About this newsletter
1. SHORT NEWS
-------------
We would like to congratulate the following Hel.A.S. members :
1. Prof. Dimitris Psaltis (Univ. of Arizona, USA), who was awarded
the 2005 Bodossaki Foundation Academic prize in Science. The
prize, which is accompanied by the sum of 20500 Euros, is given
to the best scholars of Greek descent under the age of 40 in four
categories (Science, Applied Science, Social-Economic sciences
and Medicine & Biology). This year the Science category included
the fields of Particle Physics and Astrophysics.
2. Dr. S.Basilakos who was awarded the prestigious 3 years NOVA
fellowship (http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/nova/), starting
September 1st, 2005 in Leiden- Holland, to pursue research in the
field of Extragalactic Astronomy & Cosmology.
3. Mrs. Alceste Bonanos (Harvard Univ., USA) who was offered the 3
year Vera Rubin Postdoctoral Fellowship and will be moving to the
Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, at the Carnegie Institution
of Washington in September 2005.
2. JOB OPENINGS
---------------
A new tenure track position at the level of "Lecturer" in the
field of "Dynamics" has opened at the Department of Physics of the
University of Thessaloniki. The deadline for the applications is May
9, 2005. For more information contact the secretary of the
department at +30 2310 998120.
Applications are invited for 11 PhD (pre-doc) fellowships and 7
Postdoctoral Fellowships in the study of plasma jet outflows from
young stars in the Marie Curie European Research Training Network
JETSET on Numerical Simulations, Experiments, Observations and
Analytical Studies. For more information contact Kanaris Tsinganos
(tsingan@phys.uoa.gr), or see :
http://www.jetsets.org/
3. 7th Hel.A.S. CONFERENCE PLENARY SPEAKERS
-----------------------------------------
The GC of the Hel.A.S. and the SOC of the 7th Hel.A.S. Conference
in Kefallinia, 8 - 11 September, 2005 have invited and confirmed the
participation as plenary speakers of the following distinguised Astronomers
and Astrophysicists :
1. Professor Keith Horne, Head of Astronomy, School of Physics &
Astronomy, Univeresity of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Scotland, UK
("Emilios Harlaftis Lecture").
2. Professor Eric Priest, Fellow of the Royal Society, Bishop
Wardlaw Professor at Univeresity of St. Andrews, St. Andrews,
Scotland, UK ("Our Enigmatic Sun")
3. Professor Attilio Ferrari, Dipartimento di Fisica Generale,
Consorzio Interuniversitario Universita di Torino, Fisica Spaziale,
Italy ("Astrophysical Jets")
4. Professor James Truran Jr., Department of Astronomy &
Astrophysics, the Enrico Fermi Institute, and the College, ASCI
Flash Center, University of Chicago, USA ("Nucleosynthesis,
Challenges and New Developments")
5. Professor Mike Edmunds, Head of School of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Wales, Cardiff, Wales, UK ("The Antikythera
Mechanism").
6. Dr Athena Coustenis, LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, Meudon,
France ("The Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn/Titan").
We all look forward to their interesting review talks and another
exciting Hel.A.S. confreence in Kefallinia !
4. HELLAS BECOMES 16th FULL ESA MEMBER STATE
---------------------------------
Following its ratification of the ESA Convention, Greece has now become
ESAÕs 16th Member State. The official announcement was made to the
ESA Council on 16 March by Per Tegner, Chairman of the ESA Council.
Cooperation between ESA and the Hellenic National Space Committee
began in the early 1990s and in 1994 Greece signed its first
cooperation agreement with ESA. This led to regular exchange of
information, the award of fellowships, joint symposia, mutual access
to databases and laboratories, and studies on joint projects in
fields of mutual interest.
In September 2003 Greece formally applied to join ESA. Subsequent
negotiations were followed in the summer of 2004 by the signing of
an agreement on accession to the ESA Convention by Jean-Jacques
Dordain, ESA Director General on behalf of ESA, and by Dimitris
Sioufas, the Minister for Development, on behalf of the Greek
Government.
Greece already participates in ESA's telecommunication and
technology activities, and the Global Monitoring for Environment and
Security Initiative. Now, with the deposition of its instrument of
ratification of the Convention for the establishment of ESA with the
French Government on 9 March 2005, Greece becomes the 16th ESA Full
Member State.
5. ACCESS TO INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH FACILITIES
----------------------------------------------
Prof. M. Mathioudakis (Queen's Univ. of Belfast) was awarded 2
nights of observing time with the 4.0 m Blanco telescope of the
Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO/NOAO) in Chile to use
the R-C Cassegrain Spectrograph for a search for super-saturation in
stellar chromospheres.
6. THE NEON OBSERVING SCHOOL
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The next NEON observing school will take place at the Calar
Observatory (Spain) from August 7 to 20, 2005. The application
deadline is April 18, 2005.
The principles are the same as in previous schools: introductory
lectures on topics of general interest, work in small groups,
execution of a real research project, presentation of the results at
the end of the school. The school is open to PhD students in
Astronomy or Post-docs with limited observing experience from all
over Europe. Selection of candidates will be made by the steering
committee.
The school is mainly funded through an EU Marie-Curie
program. Students from EU countries (or Associated Countries) can
therefore benefit from grants to participate in this school. This
grant will cover the local expenses, but probably not the travel
costs (or only part of it).
For more information and application material visit:
http://www2.iap.fr/eas/neon5.html
7. UPCOMING ASTRONOMY MEETINGS IN GREECE
----------------------------------------
The following meetings will take place in Greece. Please check the
corresponding web page or contact the organizers by e-mail for more
information.
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International Conference:
"Titan after the Huygens and First Cassini Encounters"
Heraklion, Crete, 30 May to 3 June, 2005
More information can be found at:
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/titanconference/
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International Conference on
"Close Binaries in the 21st Century:
New Opportunities and Challenges"
Syros, Greece, 27-30 June, 2005
More information can be found at:
http://www.phys.uoa.gr/CB_Greece05/
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3rd International Planetary Probe Workshop
Anavyssos, Attica, 27th June - 1st July 2005.
More information can be found at:
http://www.ims.demokritos.gr/IPPW-3
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2nd DRAGON Symposium (ESA-China, GSRT)
Santorini, 27th June - 1st July 2005.
More information can be found at:
http://earth.esa.int/dragon/
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7th Hellenic Astronomical Conference
Kefallinia, 8 - 11 September 2005
More information can be found at:
http://comas.interzone.gr/cgi/article.cgi
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4th Conference of Greek Amateur Astronomers
Athens, 9-11 September 2005
More information can be found at:
http://www.astronomia.org.gr/synedrio.htm
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European Low Gravity Research Association (ELGRA)
Biennial Meeting and General Assembly
Santorini, September 21st - 23rd, 2005
More information can be found at:
http://www.elgra.org/
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8. ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER
------------------------
This Newsletter was edited by Vassilis Charmandaris and Kanaris
Tsinganos. It was forwarded to the 239, out of the 258, members of
Hel.A.S. who have e-mail access.
The next edition of the Newsletter will be mailed around May 1st
2005. Please send your announcements (e.g. appointments/departures,
job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece)
or comments before April 25, 2005. 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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