Hel.A.S. Newsletter 76 - June 2004

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                       HELLENIC ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
                           ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER
             NUMBER 76                              June 2004

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  E-mail: elaset@astro.auth.gr      WWW: http://www.astro.auth.gr/elaset
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  TOPICS:

  1. Short News
  2. The 8th of June Transit of Venus
  3. Agenda of the 20th General Assembly of Hel.A.S. 
  4. OPTICON funding for Greek astronomers
  5. EARA doctoral fellowships
  6. VLBI Call for proposals
  7. Upcoming Astronomy meetings in Greece
  8. About this newsletter.
  

  1. SHORT NEWS
  -------------

    We would like to congratulate Prof. Vicky Kalogera (Northwestern Univ., 
  USA) who has been awarded a Cottrell Scholar Award (one of 11 granted this 
  year) by the Research Corporation.  The Cottrell Awards are designed for 
  young faculty members in Ph.D.-granting astronomy, chemistry, and physics 
  Departments in US and Canadian Universities.  The purpose of these awards 
  is to "enable recipients to implement their plans to become outstanding 
  scientists and educators as well as tomorrow's academic and scientific leaders."

    We would like to congratulate Dr. Nikos Prantzos (Institut
  d'Astrophysique de Paris, France) who was recently promoted to
  "Directeur de Research 2" of CNRS.

    We congradulate the Treasurer of HelAS, Dr Efstratios Theodossiou who 
  was recently promoted to Associate Professor at the Dept. of Physics of the 
  University of Athens. 

    We congradulate Emilios Harlaftis who was recently promoted to Senior 
  Researcher (Researcher B) at the ISARS of NOA and is now (April-June 2004) 
  a visiting scientist at the Department of Astronomy, University of Berkeley.

    We would also like to congratulate Drs Emmanuel T. Sarris and Olga E. 
  Malandraki, because their publication entitled "Dependence of the decay 
  phase of solar energetic electron events on the large-scale IMF structure: 
  ACE observations" Geophys. Res. Lett., 30, 21, 2079, doi:10.1029/2003GL017921,
  2003, has been selected by the Editors for its contribution to Science 
  as an "AGU Journal Highlight".
  
    We congradulate the Plasma Astrophysics group of the University of Athens 
  for their European Marie Curie Research Training Network "Jet Simulations, 
  Experiments and Theories", which was among the 7 successful physics proposals, 
  out of 116 submissions in the current 6th Framework Frame of the EU.   

    We would also like to congratulate Dr. Charalambos Skokos (Academy of
  Athens) for being recently elected in the Governing Council of the
  Hellenic Physicists Association.


  2. THE 8th OF JUNE TRANSIT OF VENUS
  ------------------------------------

    The transit of Venus on June 8th, 2004, (8:20-14:24 Greek DST) will be 
  observed with several events taking place in the following places in Greece : 

  (i) Athens/Gerostathopouleio Observatory of the National and Kapodistrian 
      University of Athens.
      There will be a public viewing through a videocamera and at the
      same time a recording of the event through the CCD camera of the 
      observatory and dissemination of the CCD images in the Internet 
      through the ESO VT-2004 project.  In addition, Dr. Vassilios N. 
      Manimanis will give a popularized lecture on the subject during 
      the event (at 12:15 DST) in the control room of the Observatory.
   
  (ii)In Thessaloniki a series of activities are planned in : 
      (a) June 4, 2004, 23:00: J.M. Pasachoff's live interview at ET3 
          TV-channel, 
      (b) June 7, 2004, 20:00: J.M. Pasachoff's lecture about the event 
          at the Ceremony Hall of the Old Building of the Faculty of 
          Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 
      (c) June 8, 2004, 08:20 - 17:00: Observation of the Transit of 
          Venus and other activities at the Observatory of the University 
          and at the new Science Centre at Thermi, Thessaloniki. 
          For further details please visit 
          http://www.astro.auth.gr/venus.html & http://www.ofa.gr/venus2004.html  

  (iii)In Corfu: Lectures will be given about the event, observation of 
       the event at the Central Park, sale of memorabilia, etc. Please check:
       http://www.geocities.com/astrocorfu/diavasiafroditisfront.htm

    Also, from the ESO EPR Dept, we were given the following related information. 
  The international VT-2004 public educational programme is entering the
  final phase and many public events are being announced by the VT-2004
  National Nodes and Network Members. There will be a Guide to Enjoy the 
  Transit, a new TV Film, Activities at the VT-2004 National Nodes, the VT-2004 
  Observing Campaign and a comprehensive CD-ROM with more than 10,000 fascimile 
  pages of related historical documents and images.

  The full text of VT-2004 Press Communication 04 (May 21, 2004), with
  one photo and all weblinks, is available at:

    http://www.vt-2004.org/Media/vt-comm-04.html 


  3. AGENDA OF THE 20TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF HEL.A.S.
  --------------------------------------------------
 
    As most of us are already aware, the next General Assembly of the
  Hellenic Astronomical Society will take place on Monday, June 21st
  2004m at 9:30am at the University of Athens. 

    The main topic of the agenda is the election of the Governing
  Council of Hel.A.S. for 2004-2006. The details of the agenda items
  are available at:

	http://www.astro.auth.gr/elaset/events/elections_2004.pdf

    By now all members must have received the ballots of the upcoming
  election along with instructions. If you have not yet received the
  ballots please check the online directory of Hel.A.S. to confirm
  that the address listed there is your up to date. Note that
  according to articles 33 and 34 of the Constitution of the Society in
  order for a member to be able to vote he/she should not have any
  outstanding membership fees.


  4. OPTICON FUNDING FOR GREEK ASTRONOMERS 
  ----------------------------------------
    As we mention in the previous electronic newsletter, the OPTICON 
  program provides funding to Greek astronomers who wish to cover the 
  cost of observing programs using telescopes participating in the 
  OPTICON network. For more information you may visit:

		   http://www.otri.iac.es/opticon/

  and in particular the links to "Travel and subsistence grands" and
  "Criteria of eligibility". 
  We just learned that Dr. Manolis Plionis (NOA) was among the first Greek 
  astronomers whose proposal entitled "Multi-Color Wide-Field Imaging of 
  Distant X-ray Clusters" was accepted for observation with the camera 
  MEGA-PRIME (CCD-array with 40 2Kx4K chips) of the 3.6m CFHT. 
  These observations are performed with a Queued Service Observing (QSO) 
  run by specialised personnel and the data are sent to the PI's via the 
  Data Archiving & Distribution System. 
  
 
  5. EARA DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS
  ----------------------------

   The European Association for Research in Astronomy (EARA) has
  been designated by the EU as a joint Marie Curie Training Site
  within the 6th Framework Programme for Research and Development.

  It is offering 3-years doctoral fellowships (starting in Sept. 2004)
  in three of the five EARA institutes:

  * the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (1 fellowship)
  * the Sterrewacht Leiden of Leiden University (3 fellowships)
  * the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris (2 or 3 fellowships)

  Candidates need to have the equivalent of a Masters degree. 
  Applications should include a curriculum vitae, a brief statement 
  of research experience (if any), and the names of two people who 
  can serve as a reference. The deadline for application is June 28, 2004.

  For more Information on the proposed PhD projects see the EARA web page 
  (http://www2.iap.fr/eara/mcurie.html) or contact Dr. Robert Mochkovitch 
  (mochko@iap.fr).


  6. VLBI CALL FOR PROPOSALS
  --------------------------

     Observing proposals are invited for the EVN, a VLBI network of radio
   telescopes spread throughout Europe and beyond, operated by an
   international Consortium of institutes (http://www.evlbi.org/).

                The deadline is 1 June 2004

    The full  text is  available on the web at:
             http://www.obs.u-bordeaux1.fr/vlbi/EVN/call.html
  

   7. UPCOMING ASTRONOMY MEETINGS IN GREECE
   ----------------------------------------

   The following meetings will take place in Greece in the coming
  months. Please check the corresponding web pages or contact the
  organizers by e-mail for more information.


                         *************************

                  International Conference & Summer School
                     "Complexity in Science and Society"
                            Patras, 14-20 July

                             More information at: 
               http://www.math.upatras.gr/~crans/complexity/

                         *************************

      ''The Environments of Galaxies:from Kiloparsecs to Megaparsecs"
 		       Chania, Crete 9-13 August 2004
                                                 
                             More information at: 
             http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/conferences/crete2004/

                         *************************
 
  8. ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER
  -------------------------

   This Newsletter was edited by Vassilis Charmandaris and Kanaris
  Tsinganos. It was forwarded to the 228, out of the 253, members of
  Hel.A.S. who have e-mail access.

   The next edition of the Newsletter will be mailed around July 1st
  2004. Please send your announcements (e.g. appointments/departures,
  job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece)
  or comments before June 25, 2004. All correspondence concerning the
  Newsletter should be addressed to:

                       tsingan@phys.uoa.gr

   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
  let us know.

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