Dear Members of IAU Division J, Galaxies & Cosmology,

The General  Assembly in Vienna is approaching rapidly. I hope many of you will be able to attend. You can find the full program online at https://astronomy2018.univie.ac.at/programme/schedule/. I want to draw your attention to events supported by Division J.

There are five IAU symposia supported by our Division:

• IAUS 343: Why Galaxies Care About AGB Stars:  A Continuing Challenge through Cosmic Time
• IAUS 344: Dwarf Galaxies: From the Deep Universe to the Present
• IAUS 347: Early Science with ELTs (EASE)
• IAUS 348: 21st Century Astrometry: crossing the Dark and  Habitable frontiers
• IAUS 349: Under One Sky: The IAU Centenary Symposium

Seven Focus Meetings are supported by Division J:

• FM2: Warm and Hot Baryonic Matter in the Cosmos
• FM3: Radio Galaxies: Resolving the AGN phenomenon
• FM6:Galactic Angular Momentum
• FM7: Radial metallicity gradients in star forming galaxies
• FM8: New Insights in Extragalactic Magnetic Fields
• FM11: JWST: Launch, Commissioning, and Cycle 1 Science
• FM15: Astronomy for Development

You find the schedule for these meetings on the GA website.

Please be sure to attend the sessions of the Division J Division Days on August 24 and 27 (https://astronomy2018.univie.ac.at/division-days/ddj/). We have an exciting program that includes talks by our Ph.D. prize winners Fabio Pacucci and Max Gronke, a mini-symposium on the Build-up of Galaxy Clusters, and a business meeting of Commission J1 on Galaxy SEDs.

On August 28, Commissions J2 (Intergalactic Medium) and X1 (Supermassive Black Holes) will hold their Business Meetings. Their meetings will be in room L8 at 11:00a (J2) and 12:00n X1.

Finally I would like to let you know that my 3-yr tenure as the President of Division J ends with the General Assembly, and I will pass on the baton to the newly elected President Denis Burgarella (France) and Vice-President Kim-Vy Tran (USA). I will continue to serve as an Advisor on the Steering Committee of the Division, whose members are:

• Elected Members, First Term:  Gustavo R. Bruzual (Mexico), Elisabete da Cunha (Australia), Johan Hendrik Knapen (Spain), Aida Wofford (Mexico)
• Second Term Members:  Leslie Hunt (Italy), Jeremy Mould (Australia)
• Commission Presidents: Cristina Carmen Popescu (United Kingdom), Valentina D’Odorico (Italy), Christine Jones (United States)
• Advisor (Past President): Claus Leitherer (United States)

Sincerely,
Claus Leitherer
(President, Division J)