Dear Members of IAU Division J, Galaxies & Cosmology:

Please be aware of the rapidly approaching deadline for the submission of Letters of Intent (LoI) for proposing IAU symposia in 2018. The deadline is 15 September 2016.

LoI’s are required prior to submitting a full symposium proposal and serve the purpose of giving the Division Steering Committee and all Division members the opportunity to provide feedback and to minimize proposal overlap.

A LoI has to give only a very brief description of the intended symposium proposal as described in the IAU rules: http://www.iau.org/science/meetings/rules/#31. Note that 2018 is a year during which a General Assembly (GA) will be held. In the year of a GA, 6 of the 9 IAU Symposia will be scheduled as GA Symposia within the scientific program of the GA and held at the GA venue. A GA Symposium normally lasts 3.5 days. The 3 IAU Symposia not associated with that GA should not be scheduled within 3 months before or after the dates of that GA.

The Steering Committee of Division J encourages all members to consider proposing an IAU symposium and will gladly provide support in all scientific aspects.

Sincerely,
Claus Leitherer
(for the Steering Committee of Division J)