No 56 – 10/03/2024

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SGAA/SSAA News No 56 – 10/03/2024 

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1. On behalf of ISSI and ISSI-BJ: Reminder for Proposals for International Teams: Deadline March 14, 2024

2. Call for SSAA Travel Support Applications: Deadline March 31, 2024

3. Call for SSAA “Astronomy Outreach” Projects: Deadline March 31, 2024

4. Call for MERAC Funding Applications: Deadline March 31 and September 30, 2024 

5. Call for Edith Alice Müller Award Nominations: Deadline: June 15, 2024

6. Next General Assembly of the SSAA: 3 Oct 2024 at the University of Zurich 

7. Reminder to pay the 2024 membership fee

8. News from the European Astronomical Society (EAS):  2024Tycho Brache Medal and MERAC Prize are awarded to SSAA members

9. EAS: MEMBERSHIP 

10. General information from the Society

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1. On behalf of ISSI and ISSI-BJ: Reminder for Call for Proposals for International Teams: Deadline March 14, 2024

Details can be found under the following link:

https://www.issibern.ch/category/call-for-proposals

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2. Call for SSAA Travel Support Applications: Deadline March 31, 2024

Deadline 31 March 2024 

Please see the funding guidelines for the Travel Support Applications under the following link:

https://ssaa.ch/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/SSAA_funding_guidelines_v20240129.pdf

Applications should be submitted as a single PDF file to the SSAA Committee (committeessaa.ch).

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3. Call for SSAA “Astronomy Outreach” Projects: Deadline March 31, 2024

In 2023, 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 to committeessaa.ch

The deadline for the call is: 31 March 2024

Requests may also be supported outside this call, if funding permits.

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4. Call for MERAC Funding Applications: Deadline March 31 and September 30, 2024

The SSAA is pleased to announce the 11th 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 recipients of the MERAC awards are listed here:

https://ssaa.ch/funding/merac/past-merac-awards

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 reviewed twice per year (31 March and 30 September 2024). 

They must include 

1) a short biography, 

2) a research project description with a summary, 

3) and a budget estimate. 

4) 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 committeessaa.ch

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5. Call for Edith Alice Müller Award Nominations: Deadline: June 15, 2024

In order to celebrate, in 2018, the half-century of the Swiss Society of Astronomy

and Astrophysics (SSAA), the SSAA Committee decided to create a yearly 

award rewarding one astronomer, author of an excellent PhD thesis.

It is named the Edith Alice Müller Award in recognition for the scientific

research done by Edith Alice Müller (1918-1995) on the composition of the Sun

and for her involvement in promoting Astrophysics at the international level.

She was the first woman to be appointed General Secretary of the International

Astronomical Union.

WHO CAN APPLY?

Students having presented a PhD thesis in Switzerland in 2023 (for the Award in 2024).

OBJECTIVE

To promote high quality astrophysical thesis in Switzerland and support the

access to this field of science for both female and male young researchers.

OFFER

The awardee will receive a sum of CHF 1 000.– and a diploma.

MORE INFORMATION

Submission for the Edith Alice Müller Award must be sent to committeessaa.ch

Deadline for receiving applications is 15 June 2024.

Documents needed :

1. A letter of the thesis supervisor that describes the thesis

2. The thesis manuscript

3. A CV of the candidate

4. A list of publications of the candidate

The SSAA will contact the applicants during the third week of

September to give them the result of the evaluation process. 

The award will be officially delivered at the yearly General Assembly

of the Society.

The list of the awards from previous years can be found below

ssaa.ch/edith-alice-muller-award

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6. Next General Assembly of the SSAA: 3 Oct 2024 at the University of Zurich

The next General Assembly will be held on Thursday, 3 Oct 2024, at the University of Zurich in the beautiful Aula of the RAA building, Rämistrasse 59 in Zürich, directly at central campus, tram stop: Kantonsschule

Details on the Agenda will follow.

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7. Reminder to pay the 2024 membership fee

The 30 CHF annual SSAA membership payment can be made online:
https://ssaa.ch/the-society/membership-join/membership-registration/payment
You can also set an automatic annual payment by clicking on the “Subscribe” button (but in that case you need to have a PayPal account).

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8. European Astronomical Society (EAS): Tycho Brache Medal and MERAC Price awarded to SSAA members

The Tycho Brache Medal is awarded to Francesco Pepe, for details see https://eas.unige.ch/tycho_brahe_medal.jsp

The MERAC Prize in Observational Astrophysics is given to Julia V. Seidel, a former SSAA Edith Alice Müller Awardee, for details see: https://eas.unige.ch/merac_prizes.jsp

Our warm congratulations to Francesco and Julia for their outstanding achievements.

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9. European Astronomical Society (EAS) MEMBERSHIP 

The EAS offers free membership to any member of the SSAA working as a researcher in astrophysics in Switzerland. You can opt in during the registration process to SSAA, or later in your profile interface (in that case, please send a message to webmasterssaa.ch for info). By ticking the box–> YES, I want  to be an EAS member via the SSAA–, you agree that the SSAA transmits your detailed information to the EAS Office, and you agree that the EAS will make use of these data for EAS-related matters only. The EAS will also publish your first and last names, institution, and country on its EAS website, behind a login. The EAS Office will send login details at the beginning of each year.

SSAA members that are currently ordinary members of the EAS need also to tick this box in the SSAA profile interface if they wish to have the free membership via the SSAA. Otherwise, they will be considered as EAS paying members (40 EUR).

The benefits of EAS membership can be found at:

https://eas.unige.ch//members.jsp?tab=benefits

In particular, EAS members profit from discount registration fees for the EAS annual meeting (formerly EWASS). The membership is, however, not immediate, so in case you plan to attend an EAS annual meeting please be sure to tick the box to accept the EAS membership well in advance of your registration to an EAS annual meeting.

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10. General information from the Society

New SSAA website in preparation:

We would like to inform all members that we are in the process of migrate the ssaa.ch website to ScNat. The new SSAA webmaster, MIchael Moser, is preparing the new website and takes care of the transition.

Contract with Springer has been signed:

The updated contract between Springer and the SSAA on the publication of the Saas-Fee Advanced Course books has finally been signed.

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

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

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