Hel.A.S. Newsletter 78 - August 2004

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                       HELLENIC ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
                           ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER
             NUMBER 78                              August 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. Agreement on Greece's accession to the ESA Convention signed
  3. Job Opening  
  4. The online directory of Hel.A.S.
  5. The New Governing Council of Hel.A.S.
  6. Project on "Astronomical Heritage in Europe"
  7. Upcoming Astronomy meetings in Greece
  8. About this newsletter
  

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

     We would like to congratulate Dr. Nikolaos Stergioulas (Univ. of
  Thessaloniki) who was recently promoted to assistant professor at
  the Department of Physics, Section of Astrophysics Astronomy and
  Mechanics.
 
    After the addition of six new members our Society now has a total
  of 259 members. Of those 205 are Ordinary members, 42 are Junior
  and 12 are Associate. Nearly 90% of the members are affiliated with
  academic institutions and have e-mail access. For more details and
  statistics on the members visit the web page of the society.


  2. AGREEMENT ON GREECE's ACCESSION TO THE ESA CONVENTION SIGNED
  ---------------------------------------------------------------
 
   The 19th of July, Mr Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA Director General, 
  and Mr Dimitris Sioufas, the Greek Minister for Development, signed 
  the Agreement on Greece's accession to the ESA Convention, at the 
  Agency's Paris Headquarters. Greece formally applied to join ESA in 
  September 2003. Under the Accession Agreement, it will become a full 
  member state by December 2005 at the latest, following a transition 
  period. "We warmly welcome Greece to the European Space Agency and  
  we look forward to the new member statefruitfully extending its 
  participation in various fields, including the new space programmes 
  Europe is preparing for the future", said Jean-Jacques Dordain. 
    Greece is already participating in telecommunication programmes, 
  Global Monitoring for Environment and Security and technology 
  activities under a Cooperation Agreement which came into force in 
  November 2001. We hope that Astronomy and Astrophysics in Greece will 
  benefit from this membership too.   
    Greece becomes the 16th member of ESA, the only EU member together 
  with Luxemburg which was not a member so far. The other ESA members are : 
  Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, 
  Holland, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Great Britain.   
    ESA which was founded 35 years ago has its headquarters in Paris, has  
  a present budget of 2.7 billions Euros and a webpage : 
  http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP


  3. JOB OPENING
  --------------

    A new position at the level of "Assistant Professor" in the
  research area of "Observational Astronomy" has opened in the
  Dept. of Physics of the Univ. of Thessaloniki. (FEK 90, pages
  567-568, 17 June 2004). The application deadline is September 1st,
  2004. Please visit the web page of the Society for more information
  on the application material.


  4. THE ONLINE DIRECTORY OF HEL.A.S.
  -----------------------------------

    As we all know the online directory of Hel.A.S. available at:

	     http://www.astro.auth.gr/elaset/dir-cover.html

  includes what the Secretary of Hel.A.S. considers to be the most
  up-to-date information on the contact postal address, phone/fax
  numbers and e-mail of each member. This information is used for all
  correspondence of the Society with the members. Its value depends
  critically on how accurate the information is. Even though we try to
  ensure that all information is correct it is always up to the
  individual member to let us know if some items of his/her personal
  record have changed.

    Thus, we would greatly appreciate if each member spends a minute
  after he/she reads this e-mail to check in the above mentioned web
  page the accuracy of his/her personal record. If you notice any
  mistake or you would like to update some of the information (such as
  include a personal web page or a fax number which may be missing)
  please send an e-mail to the Secretary of the Society
  Prof. Tsinganos (tsingan@phys.uoa.gr).
  

  5. THE NEW GOVERNING COUNCIL OF HEL.A.S.
  ----------------------------------------

    During the General Assembly of Hel.A.S. on June 21 2004, the new
  Governing council was elected. Details on the results of the
  elections were presented in the newsletter of July 2004 (#77). The
  composition of the Council is:

    President:  Prof. Laskarides Paul                (79 votes)

    Council:    Prof. Tsinganos Kanaris              (49 votes)
                Assoc. Prof. Theodossiou Efstratios  (38 votes)
                Assoc. Prof. Moussas Xenophon        (31 votes)
                Assoc. Prof. Kokkotas Kostas         (26 votes)
                Assist. Prof. Hatzidimitriou Despina (22 votes)
                Prof. Geroyannis Vassilios           (12 votes)

    Note that according to Article 31 of the Constitution of Hel.A.S.,
  at least 3 out of the 7 members of the Council have to reside outside 
  the Athens metro area. As a result, Prof.  Geroyannis (Univ. of Patras) 
  takes the seventh position in the Council even though Dr. Daglis, 
  Dr. Georgantopoulos and Dr. Dara received more votes.

    During the first meeting of the new Council on July 8th 2004,
  Dr. Despoina Hatzidimitriou, was appointed vice-president of the 
  Society while Dr. Tsinganos and Dr. Theodossiou remained as Secretary
  and Treasurer, respectively. Dr. Kokkotas was proposed as the new
  Editor of Hipparchos, while Dr. Tsinganos and Dr. Charmandaris
  remained the editors of the monthly electronic newsletter of the
  society.


  6. PROJECT ON "ASTRONOMICAL HERITAGE IN EUROPE"
  -----------------------------------------------

    In the following we include an announcement of Dr. Magda Stavinschi
  (Romania) regarding plans for a EU network on the astronomical
  heritage in Europe. Members of Hel.A.S. who are interested may
  contact Dr. Stavinschi in the address listed at the end of this
  section.

   "Astronomical Heritage in Europe"
   Proposal for an European Project

    Every country owns a rich cultural heritage with astronomical
  significance. Cosmic symbols and strong evidences of astronomical
  knowledge can be found everywhere, from drawings in caverns and
  religious sanctuaries to sundials, manuscripts, books, astronomical
  instruments or observatories. To our surprise, there is not a
  databank dedicated to this heritage yet. That is why we intend to
  propose a European project (FP6 - coordination action) within whose
  framework astronomers, historians, architects, ethnographers
  identify any object with astronomical value and register it into a
  databank. This one will then be put at the disposal of anyone who
  wants to be documented in this domain or to contribute to the
  capitalization of the national cultural heritage within today's
  globalization. So far specialists from many European countries
  joined this tentative. Hoping that also your country intends to
  contribute to the project "Astronomical Heritage in Europe", please
  contact us:

    Dr. Magda Stavinschi, Director Astronomical Institute of the
  Romanian Academy Bucharest, Str. Cutitul de Argint 5, RO-040557
  e-mail: magda@danof.obspm.fr, magda@aira.astro.ro
  http://www.astro.ro


   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.



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

      ''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 237, out of the 259, members of
  Hel.A.S. who have e-mail access.

   The next edition of the Newsletter will be mailed around September 1st
  2004. Please send your announcements (e.g. appointments/departures,
  job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece)
  or comments before August 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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