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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 400;">We are pleased to announce an upcoming virtual symposium entitled “VLBI in the SKA
Era”, to take place from 14-18 February 2022. Please mark these dates in your calendar and share this announcement with your colleagues! There will be no registration fee, and participants will be able to apply for accessibility grants. Further details and
a registration link will be shared soon.</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 400;">Motivation: Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) is essential to enable high-impact
radio astronomy science capability, including radio imaging at sub-arcsecond resolution, astrometric measurements, and geodesy. Each of the two telescopes within the Square Kilometre Array (SKA1-LOW and SKA1-MID) is by itself relatively compact, but will collectively
form the cores of a powerful new VLBI network that will be developed by leveraging existing engineering, networking, computational and scientific VLBI expertise. This symposium will explore how we will transition to the SKA-VLBI era, including the development
of pathfinder VLBI networks and new technologies; data distribution, reduction, and management approaches; and the emergence of compelling new science goals. The following highlight topics are planned for inclusion:</span></p>
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<li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span>Historical context, lessons learned from the establishment of new VLBI networks;</span></p>
</li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span>Overviews of SKA1-LOW and SKA1-MID and their planned VLBI capability;</span></p>
</li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span>How SKA will operate for VLBI observations in practice;</span></p>
</li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span>Status of major current and future VLBI telescopes and networks relevant to SKA-era VLBI;</span></p>
</li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span>New technology innovations relevant to SKA-era VLBI (e.g. beam forming, flexible backends, timing and data transport);</span></p>
</li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span>Challenges and emerging solutions for calibration and imaging;</span></p>
</li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span>Data transport and management, the Big Data challenge, and inclusion of SKA-VLBI in the SKA Regional Centre network;</span></p>
</li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span>Innovative astrophysical science goals for new and future VLBI networks, on the pathway toward SKA Key Science Projects; and</span></p>
</li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span>Non-astronomy applications for VLBI networks before and into the SKA era.</span></p>
</li></ul>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 400;">On behalf of the Scientific Organising Committee (SOC),</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 400;">George Heald (CSIRO), SOC chair</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 400;">SOC members:</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 400;">Tao An (SHAO, China)</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 400;">Olga Bayandina (JIVE, the Netherlands)</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 400;">Tyler Bourke (SKAO, UK)</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 400;">Roger Deane (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa)</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 400;">Adam Deller (Swinburne University, Australia)</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 400;">Simon Ellingsen (University of Tasmania, Australia)</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 400;">Cristina Garcia-Miro (Yebes Observatory OAN/IGN, Spain)</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 400;">George Heald (CSIRO, Australia) [chair]</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 400;">Hideyuki Kobayashi (NAOJ, Japan)</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 400;">Preeti Kharb (NCRA, India)</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 400;">Leah Morabito (Durham University, UK)</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 400;">Maria Rioja (ICRAR/UWA & CSIRO, Australia; and OAN, Spain)</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 400;">Dana Simard (Caltech, USA)</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 400;">Bong Won Sohn (KASI, Korea)</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 400;">Tiziana Venturi (INAF, Italy)</span></p>
<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: 400;">Aletha de Witt (HartRAO, South Africa)</span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(0, 169, 206); font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.2;"><b>George Heald </b><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 10.6667px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important;">(he/him)</span></span></p>
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<span class="char-style-override-4" style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif; font-size:8pt">CSIRO Senior Principal Research Scientist</span></p>
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<span class="char-style-override-4" style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif; font-size:8pt">ATNF Science Team Leader</span></p>
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<font color="#00a9ce" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10.6667px;"><b>W</b></font><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif; font-size:10.6667px"> <a href="https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/YDApCnx1jni755lMrc9KGTb?domain=people.csiro.au">http://people.csiro.au/George-Heald</a></span></p>
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