No 11 – 21/01/10

SGAA/SSAA News No 11 – 21/01/2010
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1. 40th Saas-Fee course “Astrophysics at very high energies”
2. Travel support SSAA – invitation to apply for grants
3. Travel support CSR – invitation to apply for grants
4. Call for “Astronomy Outreach” projects
5. Continuing education courses for high school teachers
6. “Are we alone?” and General Assembly 2009 material on the Web
7. Wishes for 2010
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1. 40th Saas-Fee course “Astrophysics at very high energies”

This year course is already a success with more than 90 registered
participants. Registration is possible until the end of January at
http://www.isdc.unige.ch/sf2010/

Even without registering, SSAA members are invited to assist to a concert
given at the occasion of the 40th advanced course on March 17, 19:30 in
Vers L’Eglise. The concert programme is available at
http://www.isdc.unige.ch/sf2010/concert

In case you would wish to have dinner with the course participants after
the concert please send a message to saas-feeunige.ch

Information provided by Roland Walter (ISDC)
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2. Travel support SSAA – invitation to apply for grants

In 2010 the SSAA (Swiss Society for Astrophysics and Astronomy) will
have some money from the sc|nat available for travel grants.
The SSAA now invites applicants to apply until February 26, 2010
to daniel.schaererunige.ch (Daniel Schaerer, Observatoire de Geneve).
The request should provide the date, place, and the reason for the
travel, as well as the cost to be covered by the SSAA. There are two
types of travel grants:

(a) international collaboration (CHF 6000.-)

Travel money for international collaboration is preferentially given for
travels to meetings where Swiss participation is considered to be
useful, for visits at other institutions (for research projects), and
observing runs. The person should be a SGAA member and an active
researcher in astrophysics.

(b) support for young scientists (CHF 5000.-)

Travel money for young scientists is given preferentially to Ph.D.
students but also young Post-Docs, whereby the money may be used for
observing runs, visits to other institutions, conferences, research
schools etc. In the application it should be clarified in a few words
why this travel is important for the research project of the applicant.
Particularly encouraged to apply are young researchers who are in a
situation where it is not so easy to get the money from other
institutions.
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3. Travel support CSR – invitation to apply for grants

The sc|nat Committee on Space Research (CSR) invites any time
applications for travel grants that are space science related.

The CSR travel support will be given preferentially to attendance of the
Alpbach school. The 2010 Alpbach Summer School will focus on
“New Space Missions for Understanding Climate Change”.

see: http://www.summerschoolalpbach.at/

Students are requested to submit their Alpbach applications online on
the Alpbach website until March 31, 2010. The CSR then receives the names
of the Swiss students and communicates end of April the amount of
CSR support for each student.

A decision on grant distribution for other requests than for the Alpbach
school will be taken by end of May 2010. After this date applications
are still welcome and decisions will be taken upon receipt.

Applications to the CSR should be sent to
Werner Schmutz, PMOD/WRC, Dorfstrasse 33, 7260 Davos Dorf by regular
mail or by e-mail to werner.schmutzpmodwrc.ch.

The request should provide the date, place, and the reason for the
travel.
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4. Call for “Astronomy Outreach” projects

To follow-up on the success of the International Year of Astronomy 2009,
the SSAA offers in 2010 financial support of up to 10’000 CHF for
projects on Astronomy Outreach.

Funding is possible for diverse outreach projects, including support for
exhibitions, the preparation of material for schools, the organisation
of events, and alike.

SSAA members, researchers from the Swiss astronomical institutes,
or institutional members can apply. Projects will be funded on a
competitive basis.

Please send a brief project description and your budget request
to daniel.schaererunige.ch. The deadline for the call is: March 31,
2010
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5. Continuing education courses for high school teachers

The Swiss central for continuing education of high school teachers
(Mittelschullehrer, Enseignants du secondaire II)
WBZ-CPS (http://www.wbz-cps.ch/) in Bern is happy to include your
1-3 day course for teachers in their program.

For inclusion in their annual (printed) course booklet for 2010-2011
distributed to all high school teachers, offers must be received by the
WPZ-CPS before may 15, 2010.

Persons/institutions interested in proposing such a course may contact
daniel.schaererunige.ch, who will forward you the necessary information
on how to proceed (guidelines, contact information etc.)

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6. “Are we alone?” and General Assembly 2009 material on the Web

The presentations from the annual congress of the SCNAT and the material
from the SSAA General Assembly (business session), held 13/14 November
2009 in Luzern are available on the Web under:
http://www.kongress09.scnat.ch/e/jahreskongress/praesentationen/index.php
and
http://obswww.unige.ch/ssaa/
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7. Wishes for 2010

The SSAA committee, including the new vice-president Michael Meyer from
the ETHZ, wishes you a happy and fruitful new year 2010!

We encourage you to provide your inputs to this mailing list, and to
contact us for any suggestions on matters concerning the SSAA and all
Swiss astronomers/astrophysicists.

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For more information concerning the SGAA/SSAA, astronomy in
Switzerland, and related topics visit our Website
http://obswww.unige.ch/ssaa.

For any information and messages to be circulated via the
SGAA/SSAA mailing list please e-mail your text to the secretary
(thomas.schildknechtATaiub.unibe.ch) in plain ASCII. Thank you !

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