October 2026

TOPICS

• Short News
• Call for nominations for EAS Prizes and the EAS Fellows
• ESA Archival Research Visitor Programme
• Remarks from the 6th Summer School of Hel.A.S.
• PhD opportunity at NOA
• The 2026 Nick Kylafis Lecture
• Upcoming Astronomy Meetings and Schools in Greece
• About this Newsletter

 1. Short News

The Society would like to offer congratulations to:

• Dr. Myrto Koletti for successfully completing her PhD thesis titled “Study of solar jets from the photosphere to the corona” at the Department of Physics of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens under the supervision of Dr. Kostis Gontikakis. 
• Dr. Alessio Liberatori for successfully completing his PhD thesis titled “Milky Way Gaia Doctoral Network: Revisiting the asymptotic giant branch stellar evolutionary phase with Gaia and other data” at the Department of Physics of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens under the supervision of Prof. Despina Hatzidimitriou. At the end of September, he started working as a Data Scientist/ Data Manager at the aerospace company D-Orbit in Italy.
• Dr. Ektoras Pouliasis for starting a new position as Senior Big Data Scientist at Vodafone.

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

2. Call for nominations for EAS Prizes and the EAS Fellows

EAS members are invited to submit nominations for Prizes awarded in 2027 by the EAS, i.e., the MERAC Prizes for Early Career Researcher, Tycho Brahe Medal, Jocelyn Bell Burnell Inspiration Medal, and Fritz Zwicky Prize, by October 31. Nominations are also invited for the EAS Fellows programme by the same deadline, October 31.

3. 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.

4. Remarks from the 6th Summer School of Hel.A.S.

The 6th Summer School of the Hellenic Astronomical Society, titled “Multi-messenger Astronomy,” was successfully held from August 24 to 28, 2026, at the Department of Physics of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA). Instruction was provided by scientists from universities and research centers in Greece, Europe, and the USA. The program included lectures and educational activities covering gravitational waves, cosmic rays, astrophysical neutrinos, gamma and X-rays, as well as applications of machine learning and deep learning in the search for and identification of electromagnetic counterparts to multi-messenger sources. Approximately 35 participants attended in person, with another 10 joining remotely. The School was organized with the support of the NKUA, the Academy of Athens, and the National Observatory of Athens.

5. PhD opportunity at NOA

The Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing (IAASARS) of the National Observatory of Athens (NOA) is seeking a PhD candidate to join a research project in Planetary Defence and Space Safety, expected to be co-funded by the European Space Agency (ESA). If the project is approved, a paid PhD position will be available, with an expected start in Spring 2027. The research will focus on the development of 3D shape models of potentially hazardous asteroids through a dynamic scheduling algorithm for a network of telescopes.

Candidates with backgrounds in Physics, Astrophysics, Applied Mathematics & Physical Sciences, Electrical Engineering, and/or Computer Science are encouraged to apply. The exact focus of the PhD will be tailored to the candidate’s expertise, ranging from asteroid modeling, light-curve analysis and scheduling algorithms to telescope-network automation and real-time data management. The position will also involve ~5 nights of observations per month with the 1.2m Kryoneri telescope. The PhD student will be supervised by NOA researchers (D. Athanasopoulos, A. Liakos, A. Bonanos) in collaboration with a University faculty member. Interested candidates should submit a short expression of interest, including their detailed academic transcript and CV to dimathanaso@noa.gr by 20 October 2026.

6. The 2026 Nick Kylafis Lecture

The Institute of Astrophysics – FORTH is happy to announce that the 2026 Nick Kylafis Lecturer, Prof. Simon White, will present his lecture entitled “A puzzle solved: the world is flat“, on Monday, October 26 @14:00 (UTC +3:00). The lecture will be streamed via ZOOM and details will be available on the lecture page: https://www.ia.forth.gr/seminar/1533

The “Nick Kylafis Lectureship” was established in 2019 to honor Nick Kylafis, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics at the University of Crete and past President of Hel.A.S., on the occasion of his 70th birthday. It recognizes his 35 years of scientific contributions and leadership in establishing and continuously strengthening the astrophysics group at the University of Crete and FORTH. This lifelong commitment has been instrumental in securing international recognition for the group’s research activities, which led to the creation of the Institute of Astrophysics at FORTH in 2018. Under the auspices of the Lectureship, one distinguished theoretical astrophysicist is invited to FORTH each year for a brief visit.

7. Upcoming Astronomy Meetings and Schools in Greece

• One-day workshop: From Clusters to Galaxies: The Dynamics of Stellar Systems
  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)

8. About this Newsletter

This Newsletter was sent to all members of Hel.A.S. The next edition of the Newsletter will be mailed on November 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.