SGAA/SSAA News No 27 - 03/07/2014 _________________________________________________________________________ 1. Call for "Astronomy Outreach" projects 2. Call for MERAC Funding and Travel Awards 3. 44th Saas-Fee Advanced Course, videos and slides available online 4. 45th Saas-Fee "Advanced Course", first announcement 5. SSAA General Assembly (17 oct 2014, EPFL): call for talks, Saas-Fee proposals _________________________________________________________________________ 1. Call for "Astronomy Outreach" projects In 2014, the SSAA offers financial support of up to 8000 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. Projects will be funded on a competitive basis. Please send a brief project description and your budget request to daniel.schaerer∂unige.ch. The deadline for the call is: september 30, 2014. Requests may also be supported outside this call, if funding permits. _________________________________________________________________________ 2. Call for MERAC Funding and Travel Awards The SSAA is pleased to announce its third call for MERAC awards. Since 2013 the SSAA committee distributes Funding and Travel Awards (20'000 Euro in total per year) sponsored by Foundation MERAC (Mobilising European Research in Astrophysics and Cosmology), a nonprofit foundation in Switzerland to recognize, encourage and promote the research and mobility of young European Astrophysicists and Cosmologists. The first recipients of the MERAC awards are listed here: http://www.ssaa.ch/index.php?page=actualites&hl=eng The objectives of the grants are to cover travel costs, participation at international conferences, short stays abroad, costs for collaborations, or alike, to support the development of research projects by young astrophysicists. The grants do not cover expenses for scientific apparatus or equipment. The grants are subject to the following conditions: - The grantee must be employed by or affiliated with a Swiss research institute or University. - The grants must be used to cover project costs, not or only partially covered by other institutions. - The grant has to be used within two years, after which unused funding must be reimbursed to the SSAA. - The grantee provides the SSAA with a financial report and short final report on the use of the grant. - The grantee allows the MERAC Foundation to make his/her biography and project summary public. Applications will be received twice per year (february 1, and september 1). They must include a short biography, a research project description with a summary, and a budget estimate. In case of a multiple applications, the list of other solicited funds shall be given. The applications should be limited to a maximum of 5 pages, in a single pdf file, to be sent to the Secretary of the SSAA, Georges Meynet (georges.meynet∂unige.ch). _________________________________________________________________________ 3. 44th Saas-Fee Advanced Course, videos and slides available online Course material, including videos and slides from the 44th Saas-Fee Advanced Course on COSMOLOGY WITH WIDE-FIELD SURVEYS are now available online at http://saasfee2014.epfl.ch/page-110015-en.html The written lecture notes are planned to be published in early 2015. The SSAA committee wishes to thank the organizers, Ruth Durrer, Martin Kunz, Anais Rassat, and Alexandre Refregier for their work. _________________________________________________________________________ 4. 45th Saas-Fee "Advanced Course", first announcement The topic for the 2015 course will be FROM PROTOPLANETARY DISKS TO PLANET FORMATION. The course will take place from 15-20 March 2015 in Les Diablerets. The topics and lecturers will be the following: Processes in protoplanetary disks: Prof. Philip J. Armitage Observational properties of protoplanetary disks: Dr. Leonardo Testi Planet formation and disk-planet interactions: Prof. Wilhelm Kley. Registration will open in September 2014 and the number of participants will be limited to about 100 participants. More details can be found on the course website: http://isdc.unige.ch/sf2015 Marc Audard (University of Geneva), Yann Alibert (University of Bern), Michael R. Meyer (ETH Zurich), and Martine Logossou (University of Geneva) Contact: sf2015∂unige.ch _________________________________________________________________________ 5. SSAA General Assembly (17 oct 2014, EPFL): call for talks, Saas-Fee proposals During the general assembly, to be held 17 october 2014 at the EPFL in Lausanne, some time will be reserved for short oral presentations of PhD and "AMBIZIONE" talks . To apply, persons defending their PhD in 2013 or 2014 or AMBIZIONE fellows, are invited to send a title + short abstract to the Secretary (e-mail below) before 22 august 2014. Also, the selection of the Saas-Fee course 2016 will be done at this General Assembly. We look forward to receiving interesting proposals. If possible, please contact the SSAA secretary in advance. The final program of the assembly will be circulated in September and posted on the SSAA Website. SGAA/SSAA----SGAA/SSAA----SGAA/SSAA----SGAA/SSAA----SGAA/SSAA For more information concerning the SGAA/SSAA, astronomy in Switzerland, and related topics visit our Website http://www.ssaa.ch. For any information and messages to be circulated via the SGAA/SSAA mailing list please e-mail your text to the secretary (georges.meynet∂unige.ch) in plain ASCII. Thank you ! SGAA/SSAA----SGAA/SSAA----SGAA/SSAA----SGAA/SSAA----SGAA/SSAA
Swiss Society for Astrophysics and Astronomy