From Jill.Rathborne at csiro.au Mon Mar 7 13:34:20 2016 From: Jill.Rathborne at csiro.au (Jill.Rathborne at csiro.au) Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2016 02:34:20 +0000 Subject: [ASA] CASS Data Reduction Workshop: May 2-6, 2016 Message-ID: <53C7BDF0-71EE-424B-BF44-1CB590AF90BA@csiro.au> Second Announcement of the CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science (CASS) Data Reduction Workshop to be held May 2-6, 2016 in the Science Operations Centre, Marsfield (Sydney) Note, registration closes on April 1 Have you taken data with the Australia Telescope National Facility but haven't reduced it yet? Are you stuck on some arcane point of imaging and calibration? Would you like to produce a beautiful image for your next paper? Are you new to radio data reduction? If so, this is the workshop for you! We will provide you with desk space, server space, and software to meet your requirements. More importantly, we'll team you up with an expert who can help you get the most from your data. Depending on demand we may also provide introductory lectures to get you started. Coffee and tim-tams will also be provided. Please see the web page at: http://www.atnf.csiro.au/research/workshops/2016/DataReduction/ Registration is free, but please complete the registration form by 1 April 2016 so we can prepare for the workshop. For more information, contact the organiser Paolo.Serra AT csiro.au -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From asa.ecr.chapter at gmail.com Mon Mar 7 14:59:31 2016 From: asa.ecr.chapter at gmail.com (ASA Early Career Researchers Chapter) Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2016 14:59:31 +1100 Subject: [ASA] ASA ECR workshop 2016: save the date! Message-ID: Dear colleagues, The ASA Early Career Researchers chapter is pleased to announce our next ECR Mentoring Workshop, which will be held on 30-31 May near Melbourne (venue TBD). This workshop is an opportunity to learn important (non-research) skills for advancing your career in academia and elsewhere, expand your network, and receive advice and guidance from our panel of mentors, all in a relaxed setting away from the academic environment. The theme of this year's workshop is "Survive and Thrive in Astronomy and Beyond", and we will touch on topics of career planning, leadership, nonacademic careers and mental health. Feedback from previous workshops has been very positive, and we are looking forward to another constructive and community-building meeting this year. The conference web site at http://asaecr.smp.uq.edu.au/events/workshop-2016/ will be updated with more information soon. This workshop is intended for late-stage PhD students, postdocs and very junior faculty. Please pass this message on to your colleagues; ASA members are encouraged to join the ECR Chapter by emailing asa.ecr.chapter at gmail.com . We will be in touch shortly with further details. Please plan to join us! Cheers, Sarah Martell for the ECR Chapter Steering Committee -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From k.williams at sydney.edu.au Wed Mar 9 09:58:12 2016 From: k.williams at sydney.edu.au (Kylie Williams) Date: Tue, 8 Mar 2016 22:58:12 +0000 Subject: [ASA] SkyMapper Workshop: POSTPONED Message-ID: Unfortunately due to circumstances beyond our control the SkyMapper Data Release 1: Maximising Your Science Workshop planned for 29-31 March is being postponed. The data release has not proceeded as planned and has therefore left us no other option than to postpone the Workshop until May-June 2016. We will contact you again once we are able to confirm a date for the workshop and further details of the meeting. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact Christian Wolf (christian.wolf at anu.edu.au) re SkyMapper Data and Kylie Williams (k.williams at sydney.edu.au) for any administrative enquiries. We are extremely disappointed to postpone the meeting and apologise for any inconvenience caused. Kind regards KYLIE WILLIAMS | Events and Communications CAASTRO | School of Physics | Faculty of Science | ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics Rm 217 Building H90 | 44-70 Rosehill Street, Redfern | NSW |2016| The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006 T +61 2 9114 2183 | F +61 2 9114 2195| M +61 478 404 619 Email k.williams at physics.usyd.edu.au W http:// www.caastro.org Please note: I am in the office Monday, Wednesday and Thursday -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sarah.brough at aao.gov.au Wed Mar 9 14:39:09 2016 From: sarah.brough at aao.gov.au (Sarah Brough) Date: Wed, 09 Mar 2016 14:39:09 +1100 Subject: [ASA] Welcome to new Women in Astronomy Chapter Steering Committee Members Message-ID: <3022-56df9b00-1d-55039600@224871929> Dear All, As Chair of the Women in Astronomy Chapter of the ASA I would like to thank our outgoing committee members Jessica Bloom, Alan Duffy, Sarah Pearce and Andrew Walsh for their contributions to the many activities of the Chapter over the last years. We received 3 applications for general members of the selection committee and 1 student member which was the exact number of positions we have available so there will not be a ballot this year. The following new members have been elected: General Members --------------- Kate Chow (CASS) JJ Eldridge (Auckland) Dan Zucker (Macquarie) Student Member -------------- Fiona Audcent-Ross (UWA) Congratulations to the new members of the Steering Committee! We look forward to another busy year for the Chapter in 2016. Many regards, Sarah Brough From David.Luchetti at industry.gov.au Wed Mar 9 16:59:57 2016 From: David.Luchetti at industry.gov.au (Luchetti, David) Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2016 05:59:57 +0000 Subject: [ASA] Project Director's Update [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED] Message-ID: Dear SKA stakeholders, For your information, my latest Project Director?s Update is now available on the Australian SKA Website (www.ska.gov.au). The update is also pasted below and summarises recent SKA-related activities and developments in Australia and internationally. Thanks for your ongoing interest in the Australian SKA project. Kind Regards, David Luchetti March 2016 On Monday 7 December the Australian Government announced the National Innovation and Science Agenda, which included funding to the tune of $293.7 million over 10 years to meet Australia?s initial commitment to the SKA. Although the funds are contingent on the successful outcome of ongoing international treaty negotiations, this announcement is a clear signal of the Australian Government?s commitment to the project. The funding will cover Australia?s site preparation, construction and initial operations commitments for SKA Phase 1. In other funding news, in October 2015 the Australian Research Council (ARC) awarded a $1 million grant to upgrade one of the SKA precursor telescopes, the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA). This funding will be used to expand the MWA tiles from 128 to 256, quadrupling the telescope's capabilities. More recently, the European Union?s Research and Innovation program - Horizon 2020 - awarded the SKA Organisation ?5 million. The funding is for the development of infrastructure at both the South African and Australian sites. By the second Treaty negotiation meeting in January, good progress had been made by the working groups and a productive meeting put us in a good position to finalise the Treaty later this year. The next meeting to further develop the Treaty is set for late April. There have been several significant discoveries of note in radio astronomy recently, with ICRAR and CSIRO leading the way. Not least of these is the detection of gravitational waves, as described in Einstein?s theory of general relativity, which were observed for the first time by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) with Australian scientists playing a small part in the success. Further, investigating gravity waves will be one of the key science areas for the SKA once constructed. CSIRO?s Parkes telescope was instrumental in finding never-before-seen galaxies hidden behind the Milky Way, in a project led by ICRAR?s Professor Lister Staveley-Smith. This story featured heavily in mainstream media including both the Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC. Very recently, CSIRO?s Australian Telescope Compact Array near Narrabri discovered a fast radio burst (FRB), one of only 16 discovered to date - largely due to the difficulties in detecting them. Looking forward, the SKA with its extreme sensitivity, resolution and a wide field of view is well positioned to discover more of these phenomena. The Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) has seen significant development on the solar farm with the installation of some 5000 photovoltaic panels on approximately two hectares of support frames now underway. A battery, set to be the largest of its type in Australia, is being designed to contain the power generated in a joint collaboration between CSIRO and contractor, Energy Made Clean (EMC). I look forward to updating you on further project developments soon. Kind Regards, David Luchetti Australian SKA Project Director Australian Square Kilometre Array Office __________________________________________ Department of Industry, Innovation and Science Level 9, 10 Binara Street, Canberra City ACT 2601 GPO Box 9839, Canberra ACT 2601 Ph: +61-2-6213 6068 Mob: +61 411 021 135 Email: david.luchetti at industry.gov.au Internet: www.ska.gov.au [http://www.ska.gov.au/sitecollectionimages/logo-auska.gif] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 4282 bytes Desc: image001.jpg URL: From sarah.brough at aao.gov.au Thu Mar 10 09:56:01 2016 From: sarah.brough at aao.gov.au (Sarah Brough) Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2016 09:56:01 +1100 Subject: [ASA] Pleiades Awards Outcomes Message-ID: <56E0AA01.6080201@aao.gov.au> Dear All, The ASA Chapter for Women in Astronomy is proud to announce the recipients of the Pleiades Awards 2015. The Pleiades Awards recognise organisations in Australian astronomy that demonstrate a strong commitment to the aims of the Chapter and take active steps to advance the careers of women through focused programs. This year's recipients (in alphabetical order) are: Bronze Pleiades Macquarie University, Research Centre for Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Astrophotonics Monash Centre for Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy University of New South Wales, School of Physics Full details of the awards are available here: http://asawomeninastronomy.org/the-pleiades-awards. Awardees are encouraged to celebrate their success and share their ideas throughout the STEM community. Regards, Sarah Brough Chair, ASA Chapter for Women in Astronomy on behalf of the Steering Committee From andrew.hopkins at aao.gov.au Thu Mar 10 10:48:31 2016 From: andrew.hopkins at aao.gov.au (Andrew Hopkins) Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2016 10:48:31 +1100 Subject: [ASA] AAO Honours/Masters and PhD scholarships Message-ID: <56E0B64F.8030608@aao.gov.au> The Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO) is pleased to be able to offer both Honours/Masters Scholarships and PhD Scholarships in 2016. Full details are available here: http://www.aao.gov.au/science/research/students/phd-and-honours Honours/Masters Scholarships: --------------------- The AAO offers a $5000 scholarship for Honours or Masters students enrolled at any Australian university, for a research project substantially co-supervised with an AAO staff-member. The deadline for applications is **************** 15 March 2016 **************** Details, including the application forms and application process, are available here: http://www.aao.gov.au/science/research/students/phd-and-honours Any questions about the AAO Honours/Masters Scholarships or the application process can be directed to the Head of Research and Outreach, Prof. Andrew Hopkins (ahopkins at aao.gov.au). PhD Scholarships: ----------------- The AAO is offering up to two AAO PhD Scholarships to students at Australian universities. Scholarships are for a period of 3 years, with a possible extension for a further 6 months. The value of the scholarships will be $5000 per annum. Annual renewal is conditional upon satisfactory performance by the student. The scholarships are open to any student accepted for a PhD programme at any Australian university who are substantially co-supervised by an AAO staff member. The scholarships can support students with backgrounds in astronomy, physics, engineering or mathematics with thesis research programs in astronomy or astronomical instrumentation (and related fields). For further details, including the application forms and procedure, please see the website: http://www.aao.gov.au/science/students/phd-scholarship-scheme The deadline for PhD scholarship applications is: ************* 15 March 2016 ************* Please consider whether your incoming students this year, and their planned projects, would benefit from an association with the AAO, and discuss the possibility of co-supervision with an AAO staff member. The research interests of AAO staff and some potential projects that could be discussed are available at: http://www.aao.gov.au/science/research/students/phd-and-honours Any questions about the AAO PhD Scholarship Scheme can be addressed to the Head of Research and Outreach, Prof. Andrew Hopkins (ahopkins at aao.gov.au). Andrew Hopkins -- Prof. Andrew Hopkins, Head of Research and Outreach Australian Astronomical Observatory P.O. Box 915, North Ryde, NSW 1670, Australia ph: +61 2 9372 4849 fax: +61 2 9372 4880 From vkilborn at swin.edu.au Fri Mar 11 12:57:27 2016 From: vkilborn at swin.edu.au (Virginia Kilborn) Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2016 01:57:27 +0000 Subject: [ASA] An update from the Astronomy Governance Working Group Message-ID: <0AB5773417C05846AF91678429C1E4B3530103B3@gsp-ex03.ds.swin.edu.au> Dear Astronomy community members, Please find an update from the Astronomy Governance Working Group. As a representative on this committee, I welcome your feedback at any stage of the process. We will continue to provide updates on the discussions through the ASA exploder. I encourage you to forward this information to other colleagues who may not be ASA members. Kind regards, Virginia Kilborn President, Astronomical Society of Australia. The Astronomy Governance Working Group had its third meeting on 29 February. There have been two recent changes to the working group membership - Ms Ann Bray (GM, Science Agencies Governance Branch @ Dept of Industry, Innovation and Science) has been seconded to another project with Ms Tanya Lynch (Acting GM, Science Agencies Governance Branch, DIIS) assuming the chair. In addition Prof. Lisa Kewley has been invited to join the working group in her capacity as National Committee for Astronomy (NCA) Chair. The working group is responsible for delivering implementation plans for the possible future implementation of specified new astronomy governance arrangements, which are consolidation into a governing body in CSIRO such as a subsidiary entity of CSIRO, or consolidation into a corporate Commonwealth entity. To assist in producing the implementation plans, the working group continues to refine a vision statement for the potential new entity. At this meeting, the group reviewed the detailed facility operating budgetary information provided by the AAO, ATNF, AAL and the Australian SKA office, looking to understand the scope and scale of any possible new entity, and also to identify further risks involved in any change. The next meeting of the working group will be in late April, and will focus on evaluating the cost-benefit and risks of the two governance options after a workshop in late March that feeds into this working group meeting. The timeline for delivering the implementation plans to the minister has been extended until June, due to the extra time taken to analyse the costings. Virginia Kilborn Chair, Department of Physics and Astronomy Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology Swinburne University of Technology Ph (w) +61 (0)3 9214 4380 http://www.astronomy.swin.edu.au/~vkilborn/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From gayandhi.desilva at aao.gov.au Fri Mar 11 14:08:09 2016 From: gayandhi.desilva at aao.gov.au (Gayandhi De Silva) Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2016 14:08:09 +1100 Subject: [ASA] Decommissioning the MITLL detector on AAT+UCLES Message-ID: <56E23699.1060407@aao.gov.au> Dear Colleagues, The AAO is planning on decommissioning the MITLL detector on the UCLES spectrograph and this email is to poll the community as to its need/use of this capability. Our statistics show that there is increasingly less demand for the MITLL. Note that UCLES will continue to be offered with the blue sensitive EEV detector. In particular, if you anticipate using UCLES+MITLL over the next year, we ask that you respond to Gayandhi De Silva (gayandhi.desilva at aao.gov.au) noting your intentions. -- Gayandhi De Silva Research Astronomer AAO / University of Sydney Work Hours: 10am - 2pm, Mon-Fri Mob: 0431406909 From stingay at ira.inaf.it Sat Mar 12 00:36:18 2016 From: stingay at ira.inaf.it (Steven Tingay) Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2016 14:36:18 +0100 Subject: [ASA] Fwd: Recruiting for a new General and Scientific director for ASTRON In-Reply-To: <56E2CF55020000EA000137F7@gwsmtp1.astron.nl> References: <56E2CF55020000EA000137F7@gwsmtp1.astron.nl> Message-ID: Dear All, Attached, please find the start of the recruiting process for a new General and Scientific Director for ASTRON. As you can see, the advertisement will go live on April 1. Please spread the word to anyone suitably qualified and interested. I'm a member of the ASTRON SAC, so if anyone would like to talk to me regarding my perspectives on the position, I'd be very happy to chat. Regards, Steven ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Secretaris Selectiecommissie Algemeen Directeur Date: Fri, Mar 11, 2016 at 1:59 PM Subject: Recruiting for a new General and Scientific director for ASTRON To: haynes at astro.cornell.edu, koopmans at astro.rug.nl, bhatnagar.sanjay at gmail.com, stingay at ira.inaf.it, danielle.george at manchester.ac.uk, sean.dougherty at nrc-cnrc.gc.ca, aloots at ska.ac.za, rottgering at strw.leidenuniv.nl, r.a.m.j.wijers at uva.nl Cc: "kgaemers at xs4all.nl" Dear all, On behalf of Karel Gaemers, chairman of the ASTRON board, I kindly ask you to spread our job advertisement for a new General and Scientific director for ASTRON. On April 1, 2016 the advert will be published on the AAS job register. If you have suggestions on people who will fit the described profile, please feel free to send me their names and we, as recruitment committee, will contact them directly. Yours sincerely, Diana Verweij Executive secretary recruitment committee -- Prof. Steven Tingay* Direttore dell'Osservatorio di Radio Astronomia (ORA) Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) Via P. Gobetti, 101 40129 Bologna Italia Phone: +39 51 639 9400 Mobile (Italia): +39 342 350 2688 Mobile (Australia): +61 401 103 635 * On secondment from Curtin University -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: advert director ASTRON.docx Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document Size: 174852 bytes Desc: not available URL: