No 37 – 27/11/2017

SGAA/SSAA News No 37 – 27/11/2017
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1. Saas-Fee Lecture 2018 on 28 January- 3 February 2017, Villars-sur-Ollon, Switzerland
2. Internationales Jost-Bürgi-Symposium on 14 April 2018, Liechtenstein im Toggenburg
3. Travel support SSAA – invitation to apply for grants, deadline 1rst of March
4. Call for “Astronomy Outreach” projects, deadline 1rst of March
5. Call for for MERAC Funding and Travel Awards
6. Various calls from IAU
7. Documents of the last General Assembly of the SSAA, Zürich , 6 October 2017
8. Next General Assembly of the SSAA, Bern, 12 October 2018
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1. 48th “Saas-Fee Advanced Course” of the Swiss Society for Astrophysics and Astronomy (SSAA)
The registration is open  :    http://www.isdc.unige.ch/sf2018
Regular registration deadline 30 November 2017
late registration deadline 15 January 2018
The 48th “Saas-Fee Advanced Course” of the Swiss Society for Astrophysics and Astronomy (SSAA)
will be held from Sunday, 28 January to Saturday, 3 February 2018 in Saas-Fee,
in the Swiss Alps.
This course has taken place annually since 1971 and will be devoted in 2018 to:
Black hole formation and growth
The advanced Course will review the state of knowledge, open questions and forecasts
and will cover the following topics: Foundation of Gravity, early Universe,
primordial black-holes, black holes at all scales, black-hole merging and
gravitational waves, black-hole accretion and feedback, black hole growth
on cosmological time scales.
These lectures will be given in English by three experts:
Prof. Tiziana Di Matteo (Carnegie Mellon University)       Black holes across cosmic history
Prof. Neil Cornish (Montana State University)              Black hole merging and gravitational waves
Prof. Andrew King (University of Leicester)                Black hole accretion and feedback
The lectures will be held in the morning and in the late afternoon leaving free time
for informal discussions, studies, and outdoor activities (skiing) in the afternoons.
The course is intended mainly for post graduate astronomers and physicists who wish
to broaden their knowledge. The lecture notes will be published by Springer-Verlag
in the Saas-Fee lecture series.
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2. Internationales Jost-Bürgi-Symposium on 14 April 2018, Liechtenstein im Toggenburg
See the documents appended at the end of this mail.
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3. Travel support SSAA – invitation to apply for grants (total amount to distribute CHF 7000.-)
In 2018 the SSAA (Swiss Society for Astrophysics and Astronomy) will
have some money from the sc|nat available for travel money for young scientists.
The SSAA now invites applicants to apply until March 1rst 2018
The request should provide the date, place, and the reason for the
travel, as well as the cost to be covered by the SSAA.
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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4. Call for “Astronomy Outreach” projects
In 2018, the SSAA offers financial support of up to 5000 CHF for
projects on Astronomy Outreach.
Funding is possible for diverse outreach projects, including support for
exhibitions, the preparation of material for schools, the organization
of events, and alike. Projects will be funded on a competitive basis.
Please send a brief project description and your budget request
The deadline for the call is: March 31, 2018.
Requests may also be supported outside this call, if funding permits.
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5. Call for MERAC Funding and Travel Awards
The SSAA is pleased to announce the 2018 call for MERAC awards.
Since 2013 the SSAA committee distributes Funding and Travel
Awards (20’000 Euro in total) 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 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 (March 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
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6. Various calls from IAU
December 15, 2017: IAU Ph.D. prize.
The IAU PhD Prize recognizes outstanding scientific achievement in astrophysics
around the world. Each IAU Division has, once a year, the opportunity to award
its own prize to the candidate it feels has carried out the most remarkable work
in the previous year (i.e. a PhD Thesis which has been defended between
the 16 December in the previous year, and 15 December this year). Please make
prospective candidates at your institution aware of this excellent opportunity.
See
for more information.
December 15, 2017: IAU Symposia for 2019.  Applicants who wish to propose a symposium
(and who have submitted a Letter of Intent) should keep in mind that requests for
divisional support letters should be send to the relevant Division Steering
Committees well before December 15 (for DivG, send to corinne.charbonnel∂unige.ch;
internal deadline was Nov.15, flexibility until Nov.27). This will ensure a
proper review of the request by the full Steering Committees.
General Assembly Vienna 2018
There are various deadlines for registration, abstract submission,
and grant application for the General Assembly in Vienna in 2018.
Early registration closes on January 31, 2018. Abstract submission
and grant applications close on Feb.28, 2018. See
We strongly encourage you to submit an abstract for a presentation to
the Division Days of the different divisions which will happen on August 24 and 27, 2018.
The list of Symposia and Focus Meetings is available on
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7. Documents of the last General Assembly of the SSAA held in Zürich on 5-6 october 2017.
You can access the documents listed below by clicking on the link
1.-SSAA_GA_06_OCTOBRE_2017_MINUTES: minutes
2.-GA_SSAA_ZURICH_2017.pdf: powerpoint slides of the business session
3.-SSAAthesisprize.pdf: a small report about the idea of a SSAA prize
4.-CSR.pdf: report of the Commission of Space Research (W. Schmutz)
5.-SSAA_ESO_Council_Report.pdf: report of swiss representatives to ESO Council (W. Benz)
6.-STC_report.pdf: Scientific Technical Committee (F. Pepe)
7.UCactivity-2017.pdf: ESO Users Committee (M. Dessauges)
8-ESON_report_2016.pdf: ESO Science Outreach Network (N. Cretton)
9.-2017April20_EC_draft_minutes.pdf: minutes of Executive Committee of A&A Board (M. Falanga)
10.-2017April21_Board_draft_minutes.pdf: minutes A&A Board meeting (M. Falanga)
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8. Next General Assembly of the SSAA, Bern, 12 October 2018
For celebrating the 50 years of the Society a SSAA prize will be offered.
More details about this prize will be given in a special e-news devoted to it
at the beginning of 2018.
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