September 2026

TOPICS

• Short News
• Hel.A.S. Member Profiles
• EAS Membership for Hel.A.S. members
• Call for MIAPbP proposals
• ESA Archival Research Visitor Programme
• Upcoming Astronomy Meetings and Schools in Greece
• About this Newsletter

 1. Short News

We wish all our members a successful and fulfilling new academic year.

The Society would like to offer belated congratulations to:

• Dr. Efthaleia Traianou, postdoctoral researcher at the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR) at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, who was awarded an Event Horizon Telescope 2025 Early Career Award for her leadership role in advancing our understanding of jet physics. 
• Dr. Aristomenis Yfantis, postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC), Spain, who was awarded an Event Horizon Telescope 2025 Outstanding PhD Award for his PhD thesis at Radboud University.

The Society extends its best wishes for further success in their professional pursuits.

2. Hel.A.S. Member Profiles

We kindly request that all members verify the information listed in their profiles in both the Society’s online directory and the Directory of Greek Astronomy PhDs by September 30th. Please inform the Secretary (secretary@helas.gr) of any corrections or changes.

We also kindly ask members to keep us informed of any updates to their professional status, such as the completion of a PhD, a new position, or other significant career developments. Keeping this information up to date will help us maintain an accurate and current directory of our members.

3. EAS Membership for Hel.A.S. members

We would like to remind all our members that the European Astronomical Society (EAS) offers free membership to all junior and ordinary members of Hel.A.S., as well as members of all EAS affiliated societies. As a result, with just the Hel.A.S. annual membership fee, one may also receive all EAS member benefits, presented here. 

Once a year we have the possibility to update this list so new members of Hel.A.S., as well as old members who did not take advantage of this opportunity can benefit from the EAS membership. EAS may use the members’ data for EAS-only matters, such as sending e-mails with various information, as well as the EAS newsletter, logging on the EAS website, etc. The EAS will never sell or otherwise make available the members’ data to commercial or non-commercial third parties. Members that leave the EAS can request that their data be erased from the EAS database.

All members of HelAS who are not already EAS members and wish to join may send an e-mail to secretary@helas.gr with the following sentence as the Subject line.

“I am an Ordinary/Junior member of Hel.A.S. and I wish to join EAS for free!”

The e-mail must be received by September 30, 2026.

4. Call for MIAPbP proposals

We would like to inform our members that the call for the 2028 program series of the Munich Institute for Astro-, Particle and BioPhysics (MIAPbP) is open. If you are interested in proposing a four-week scientific program on current topics in astrophysics or cosmology please see https://www.munich-iapbp.de/propose for detailed information and the MIAPbP website for previous program topics. The MIAPbP Program Committee will review the proposals, and the final decision on the 2028 program series will be made by the end of 2026. The deadline for proposal submission is 27 September 2026.

5. ESA Archival Research Visitor Programme

To increase the scientific return from its space science missions, the European Space Agency (ESA) welcomes applications from scientists interested in pursuing research projects based on data publicly available in the ESA Space Science Archives.

The ESA Archival Research Visitor Programme is open to scientists, at all career levels, who are affiliated with institutes in ESA Member States and Cooperating States. All visits must comply with the ESA security directives, which may necessitate additional checks. Early-career scientists and PhD students are particularly encouraged to apply. We encourage applications from women and minorities. The peer-review evaluation process is anonymised to ensure equal opportunities for all applicants.

During their stay, visiting scientists will have access to archives and mission specialists for help with the retrieval, calibration, and analysis of archival data. In principle, all areas of space research covered by ESA science missions can be supported.

Residence lasts typically between one and three months, also distributed over multiple visits. Research projects can be carried out at ESAC (Madrid, Spain) and at ESTEC (Noordwijk, Netherlands). To offset the expenses incurred by visitors, ESA covers travel costs from and to the home institution and provides support for lodging expenses and meals.

Applications received by 31 October 2026, 23:59 UTC, will be considered for visits in spring and summer 2027.

For further details, including areas of research and contact information, please refer to https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/esdc/visitor-programme or write to the programme coordinators at arvp@cosmos.esa.int.

6. Upcoming Astronomy Meetings and Schools in Greece

• Star Formation Fields (Crete IV)
  21-25 September 2026, Rethymno, Crete
• “From Clusters to Galaxies: The Dynamics of Stellar Systems” Workshop (attendance is free)
  7 October 2026, Headquarters of the Academy of Athens, Panepistimiou 28
• From Gaia to GaiaNIR – Science from Precision Astrometry Across the Universe and Beyond the Extinction Barrier
  11-15 January 2027, Athens (Eugenides Foundation)
• 18th Hellenic Astronomical Conference
  28 June – 1 July 2027, Thessaloniki (Aristotle University Research Dissemination Center)

7. About this Newsletter

This Newsletter was sent to all members of Hel.A.S. The next edition of the Newsletter will be mailed on October 1, 2026. Please send your announcements (e.g., appointments / departures, job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece) or comments before September 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.