IAU Division D Bulletin N. 12: January 1, 2017

INDEX:

• Solar radio astronomy highlights
• IAU/EU strategic partnerships to boost dissemination and exploitation of results in the field of astronomy and space science
• News from INTEGRAL
• In memoriam - Mikhail Revnivtsev
• Upcoming Meetings

 

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Solar radio astronomy highlights

The Community of European Solar Radio Astronomers (http://cesra.net) now publishes bi-weekly highlights of solar radio astronomy. These are short communications to keep astrophysics community informed and up-to-date. The topics include plasma astrophysics, magnetohydrodynamics, shocks, non-thermal particles, particle acceleration, etc. and can be also followed/discussed via https://twitter.com/CESRA_community and https://www.facebook.com/solarcesra/

 

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IAU/EU strategic partnerships to boost dissemination and exploitation of results in the field of astronomy and space science

A message from the Robert-Jan Smits, Director-General of the Directorate for Research and Innovation of the European Commission, to EU Project Coordinators in the field of Astronomy and Space Science.

Activities to disseminate, communicate and exploit results from research and innovation projects are an integral part of the EU Framework Programmes. Enhanced dissemination and exploitation are strategic matters for the uptake of results from concluded or still ongoing FP7 projects and for the success of Horizon 2020 in order to achieve sizeable economic, social and environmental impacts. While the European Commission is undertaking specific actions to enhance the support in the projects’ dissemination and exploitation activities, it also requests beneficiaries of EU grants to provide the widest possible dissemination of their results by disclosing them to the public by all appropriate means. These costs are naturally eligible under an ongoing grant.

Within this context and looking at the specific case of projects and research infrastructures in the field of astronomy and space science in general, we would draw your attention to the valuable expertise and contribution that the International Astronomical Union (IAU) could offer and we would invite you to take advantage of it by exploring new or renewed collaboration and partnership opportunities in the context of outreach initiatives within your projects and/or communities. The work which is performed by the IAU in awareness raising using astronomy as a tool for reaching out to the public worldwide and its efforts in capacity building and development, are impressive. They are also fully in line with the spirit of Horizon 2020 - especially in the context of citizens' science, general public & youth engagement.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) was founded in 1919. Its mission is to promote and safeguard the science of astronomy in all its aspects through international cooperation. Its individual members — structured into Divisions, Commissions, and Working Groups — are professional astronomers from all over the world. The IAU has 12382 members in 98 countries worldwide. In addition, the IAU collaborates with various scientific organizations all over the world.

The key activity of the IAU is the organization of scientific meetings. Every year the IAU sponsors nine international IAU Symposia. Every three years the IAU holds a General Assembly, which offers six IAU Symposia, some 25 Joint Discussions and Special Sessions, and individual business and scientific meetings. Among the other tasks of the IAU are the definition of fundamental astronomical and physical constants; unambiguous astronomical nomenclature; promotion of educational activities in astronomy; and informal discussions on the possibilities for future international large-scale facilities. Furthermore, the IAU serves as the internationally recognized authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies and surface features on them.

The IAU also works to promote astronomical education, research and public outreach actions towards the public. These activities culminated with the organization of the UNESCO International Year of Astronomy in 2009, which reached out to over 800 million people from 148 countries. Following this effort, the IAU created the Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD), a joint venture with the South African National Research Foundation as well as with the IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach (OAO), a joint venture with the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. Astronomy is used as a tool for stimulating capacity building for universities and research, children and schools and through public outreach. We would like to encourage you to explore partnering opportunities with the IAU for a wider outreach of the results of your EU funded projects and for envisaging future dissemination actions, both at EU and international level, by making contact directly with the IAU General Secretary.

 

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News from INTEGRAL

At its 152nd meeting, the Science Program Committee (SPC) confirmed the 2-year (2017 and 2018) extension for INTEGRAL operations. The next INTEGRAL Users’ Group meeting (#19) will be held 1-2 March 2017 at ESTEC. The next call for observing proposals (AO-15) will be open from 20 February to 31 March 2017. The AO-15 TAC meeting is set for 15–17 May 2017. For more info, see http://integral.esac.esa.int.

 

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In memoriam - Mikhail Revnivtsev

We were deeply saddened to learn that Professor Mikhail Revnivtsev, of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, passed away in November 2016 at the age of 42.  He is survived by his wife and three young children.  Mike was an exceptional X-ray astronomer, making major contributions to our understanding of black holes, neutron stars, galaxy clusters, and the structure of the Milky Way. He was also a wonderful colleague, and will be sorely missed.

http://hea.iki.rssi.ru/wp/2016/12/integral-picture-of-the-month-december-2016/

 

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Upcoming Conferences, Meetings, Workshops and Schools

STARS2017 - 4th Caribbean Symposium on Cosmology, Gravitation, Nuclear and Astroparticle Physics
7-9 May 2017, Havana, Cuba
and
SMFNS2017 - 5th International Symposium on Strong Electromagnetic Fields and Neutron Stars
10-13 May 2017, Varadero, Cuba
https://indico.cern.ch/event/542644/

Generation-GW: Diving into Gravitational Waves
5-9 June 2017
St Thomas, US Virgin Islands
http://observatory.uvi.edu/Conferences/default.aspx

Polarised Emission from Astrophysical Jets
June 12-16 2017
Ierapetra, Greece
http://www3.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/old_mpifr/jetpol/jetpol/

Physics of neutron stars 2017 - 50 years after
10-14 July 2017
St Petersburg, Russia
http://www.ioffe.ru/astro/NS2017/

Unveiling the physics behind extreme AGN variability
11-14 July 2017
St Thomas, US Virgin Islands
https://variableagn2017.sciencesconf.org/