From jhurley at swin.edu.au Mon May 19 23:22:20 2014 From: jhurley at swin.edu.au (Jarrod Hurley) Date: Mon, 19 May 2014 13:22:20 +0000 Subject: [ASA] Astronomy Supercomputer Time Allocation Committee: Call for Proposals for Q3-Q4 2014 (NCI, Swinburne and iVEC facilities) Message-ID: Astronomy Supercomputer Time Allocation Committee: Call for Proposals ? NCI peak facility, Green II (gSTAR/swinSTAR) and iVEC Galaxy ** Call closes at 5pm (AEST) Friday 6th June, 2014 ** Attached is a call for proposals for time on two Australian Supercomputer Facilities for Q3-Q4 in 2014. The same information is available on the Astronomy Australia Limited website at http://www.astronomyaustralia.org.au/commitees/astac We would like to draw your attention to the following key points: 1. ASTAC encourages potential applicants to contact us should you require any technical or scientific advice. 2. The GPU facility gSTAR, part of the Swinburne University of Technology Green II machine, offers users an opportunity for very high performance computational power for appropriately written code. We would also like to highlight that researchers may apply for an account on this facility at any time, independent of the ASTAC process, and make use of resources through general access arrangements. More information can be found at http://www.astronomy.swin.edu.au/supercomputing/hpc_wiki/ 3. The deadline for this current round of proposals is 5pm (AEST), Friday 6th June, 2014. 4. ASTAC is particularly keen to encourage graduate students and early career researchers to become involved in this rapidly developing field, which offers the capacity to perform simulations of numerous astrophysical situations at high resolution and in three dimensions. Advisers are available to assist people in getting started in this area. 5. ASTAC allows applications to be led (Lead Chief Investigator) by PhD students, with their thesis supervisor as a Chief Investigator. ASTAC would like to highlight the benefits of showing leadership on successful time allocation applications to a student?s CV. 6. Along with this call for proposals, ASTAC is seeking feedback from Australian astronomers on the ASTAC process and access to high-performance computing resources. Whether you have previously applied for time through ASTAC or not, we would appreciate you taking a few minutes to provide us with your feedback by completing the following survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7SSLPLJ If you would like to directly receive ASTAC news and announcements, you can sign up to our mailing list at:http://www.astronomyaustralia.org.au/commitees/astac ASTAC Mark George Beckett (iVEC representative; ex-officio), Geoff Bicknell (Australian National University), Ben Evans (NCI representative; ex-officio), Amr Hassan (ASTAC Secretary, Swinburne University), Luke Hodkinson (Swinburne supercomputer user consultant), Jarrod Hurley (Swinburne Supercomputer Manager; ex-officio), Katherine Mack (Chair, University of Melbourne), Steve Ord (Curtin University), Jon Smillie (NCI user consultant), Chiara Tonini (University of Melbourne), Matthew Whiting (CSIRO). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: ASTAC-call.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 385321 bytes Desc: ASTAC-call.pdf URL: From andrew.hopkins at aao.gov.au Tue May 20 12:39:01 2014 From: andrew.hopkins at aao.gov.au (Andrew Hopkins) Date: Tue, 20 May 2014 12:39:01 +1000 Subject: [ASA] Fwd: [APRIM 2014] Only 12 days left for abstract submissions! In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <537AC045.8000003@aao.gov.au> -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [APRIM 2014] Only 12 days left for abstract submissions! Date: Tue, 20 May 2014 10:47:02 +0900 From: APRIM 2014 Reply-To: APRIM 2014 To: APRIM 2014 *APRIM 2014 6th Newsletter: **http://www.aprim2014.org/newsletter/news6.htm* -- A.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 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From renu.sharma at uwa.edu.au Tue May 20 14:29:24 2014 From: renu.sharma at uwa.edu.au (Renu Sharma) Date: Tue, 20 May 2014 12:29:24 +0800 Subject: [ASA] Reminder: ICRAR Visiting Fellowship for Senior Women in Astronomy Message-ID: <7B93E3ABF1E62946899AF9374F443D905EE56DC4A6@IS-WIN-383.staffad.uwa.edu.au> From: Renu Sharma Sent: Friday, 28 March 2014 1:42 PM To: 'j.obyrne at physics.usyd.edu.au' Cc: asa at physics.usyd.edu.au Subject: ICRAR Visiting Fellowship for Senior Women in Astronomy Dear ASA Members, ICRAR is committed to supporting women in astronomical sciences and technology and we are pleased to invite applications for the " ICRAR Visiting Fellowship for Senior Women in Astronomy". Please see detailed information on: http://www.icrar.org/womens-fellowship Please also find attached the fellowship poster. The main objectives of the fellowship are to: * Enrich the research environment at ICRAR * Create opportunities to foster national and international collaborations * Enable scientific interaction between early career researchers and graduate students, particularly women, with senior academic visitors * Create opportunities for young researchers to learn career development and work-life balance strategies from potential role models * Explore opportunities for developing mentoring relations. The Fellowship provides * $5,000 per month for three months for living and accommodation expenses * Travel assistance of up to $5,000 * Needs-based additional support of up to $4,000 may be provided for childcare or other required support. * Please forward this to suitable candidates and encourage them to apply. Applications close on 30 May 2014. We look forward to receiving applications from interested candidates. Kind regards Renu Dr Renu Sharma GAICD, FLWA Associate Director International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) Web: http://www.icrar.org/ 7 Fairway The University of Western Australia Crawley WA 6009 Phone: +618 6488 7871 ICRAR is a Joint Venture of Curtin University and The University of Western Australia -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: ICRAR Visiting Fellowship for Senior Women in Astronomy.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 192189 bytes Desc: ICRAR Visiting Fellowship for Senior Women in Astronomy.pdf URL: From gary.dacosta at anu.edu.au Tue May 20 12:28:37 2014 From: gary.dacosta at anu.edu.au (Gary Da Costa) Date: Tue, 20 May 2014 02:28:37 +0000 Subject: [ASA] Second Annual GMT Community Science Meeting References: <25805_1400545157_537A9F85_25805_32_1_F6A08593-CAEF-4693-8D10-4A2B26C65E22@anu.edu.au> Message-ID: Dear Colleagues: The Second Annual GMT Community Science Meeting will be held in Washington, DC, on October 6-8 this year. The venue will be the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall. The meeting title is "Transient Phenomena in Astronomy & Astrophysics" and the conference aims to improve our understanding of time-domain astrophysics and explosive phenomena. An impressive list of invited speakers has been assembled. Details can be found at www.gmtconference.org. Some funding is available from the GMTO to support the participation of students and early career researchers. Best regards, Gary Da Costa (GMT Science Advisory Committee) From yeshe.fenner at astronomyaustralia.org.au Fri May 23 11:02:25 2014 From: yeshe.fenner at astronomyaustralia.org.au (Yeshe Fenner) Date: Fri, 23 May 2014 11:02:25 +1000 Subject: [ASA] National Keck access in 2016 and 2017 Message-ID: <000001cf7622$a98b2d70$fca18850$@astronomyaustralia.org.au> Dear ASA Members, Astronomy Australia Ltd (AAL) is delighted to announce that ten nights per year on the Keck telescopes will be available to Australian-based astronomers during 2016 and 2017 through the Australian Time Assignment Committee. >From 2016 the ANU, Swinburne and AAL arrangements will enable Australian astronomers to make use of a total of forty nights per year on the Keck telescopes. AAL will work with ANU-RSAA, Swinburne-CAS and the AAO to investigate how to maximise the scientific-return from Australian access to the Keck telescopes. AAL would like to thank the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at ANU who enabled this additional access to the Keck telescopes to be secured via ANU's existing partnership with WMKO. AAL also thanks the Centre of Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University of Technology who supported AAL's engagement with WMKO. This new development is supported by the NCRIS-2013 grant which AAL secured in September 2013. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions on this matter. Kind regards, Mark ______________________________________________ Mark McAuley Chief Executive Officer Astronomy Australia Ltd T: 03 9214 8036 F: 03 9214 4396 E: mark.mcauley at astronomyaustralia.org.au W: astronomyaustralia.org.au P: P.O. Box 2100 Hawthorn VIC 3122 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From swyithe at unimelb.edu.au Fri May 23 15:20:26 2014 From: swyithe at unimelb.edu.au (Stuart Wyithe) Date: Fri, 23 May 2014 05:20:26 +0000 Subject: [ASA] Decadal Plan Publications and Instrumentation Database Message-ID: <39E8E4BA-1EA4-4FF4-949A-14209C730A93@unimelb.edu.au> Dear Colleagues, As you will be aware the Australian Astronomy community is currently in the Decadal Planning process for the period 2016-2025. An important part of the Decadal Plan is the opportunity for Australian astronomy to carry out a stock take of its capabilities, assess its impact both nationally and internationally, provide a vision for the future, and to set priorities and develop strategies on how that vision might be implemented. Earlier this year members of the Australian community were asked to complete the Demographics survey, with an excellent response. As per the previous Decadal Plan the NCA is now also constructing a database of the facilities and techniques used for Australian astronomy publications. This will be the second and last major survey exercise in the Decadal Plan process. The aim of the Publications and Facilities Database is to understand how astronomy infrastructure and techniques have been used during the past Decadal Plan period, and what the scientific impact of those facilities/techniques has been. This allows our community to assess the outcomes from previous investments and more effectively plan for the future. We encourage all Australian astronomers to take the time to complete this data base. Doing so will ensure that the science return from your research and from the facilities that you use for your research will be quantified among the successes of Australian astronomy over the past decade. [Please note that all information will be aggregated nationally and not be tallied on an individual or institutional basis] The link to the Decadal Plan Publications and Facilities Database Input Page can be found at http://ph.unimelb.edu.au/astroads/upload.php The page is pass word protected. username: decadal password: plan This webpage will allow you to generate a library of your papers from the past Decadal Plan period using the ADS database. You will then be asked to assign the facilities/techniques that were used to conduct the research in these papers. Instructions are provided on the webpage, and are available at the bottom of this email. We have made an effort to ensure that input into the data base is as simple as possible and should only take about 30 seconds per paper. However we do recognise that the assignment of facility/techniques to individual papers is time consuming, and that it may not be possible for some members of the community to assign facilities/techniques to all of their papers in a single visit. If the assignment cannot be completed in a single session, it is therefore possible to revisited the webpage at a later date to complete your submissions. We ask that you complete your contribution to the Decadal Plan Publications and Facilities Database by Friday 20th June. Information on the 2016-25 Decadal Plan time-line, activities and working groups can be found at AustralianAstronomyDecadalPlan.org. Information about the NCA and previous Decadal Plans can be found on the National Committee for Astronomy web site. Best regards, Stuart Wyithe and Brian Schmidt ________________________________ Go to: http://ph.unimelb.edu.au/astroads/upload.php Enter your email (this will serve as a unique identifier for your papers, and allow you to edit your list) and your name as it would appear on ADS, e.g. "Wyithe, J" This page will generate a library of your papers over the past Decadal Planning period from the ADS database. You will then be asked to assign the facilities/techniques that were used to conduct the research in these papers. Once you are taken to your library of papers please note the following points that will ensure your publications are counted correctly: * In many cases the names submitted to the ADS database will generate listings that include some papers not belonging to the correct author. The generated listing therefore includes a check box next to the ADS identifier. To include papers in the Decadal Plan Publications Database please select this box. * Assignment of facilities/techniques and their percentage contribution to each selected paper is via drop down menus. Assignments of up to 5 facilities/techniques can be made for each paper. Default facilities/techniques can be selected on this webpage prior to generation of the library in order to make entry easier in cases where the same facility/technique is used for many papers. Exercise your judgement as to the fraction of the paper which can be attributed to a given facility or technique. You do not need to use all 5 categories, but totals DO need to add up to 100%. * We recognise that assignment of facility/technique to individual papers is time consuming, and that it may not be possible for members of the community to assign facilities/techniques to all of the selected papers in a single visit. If the assignment cannot be completed in a single session, please submit those paper assignments that have been made. The library may then be revisited from this webpage at a later date, in which case previously entered papers will be shown in red. Please note that when re-generating the library to complete paper assignments the same email address should be used. If errors are made during paper assignment, it is possible to delete these from from the database via the 'delete' tab that appears beside previously submitted papers. * If you encounter technical difficulties, please use the form at the bottom of the webpage. ==================================== Professor Stuart Wyithe Australian Laureate Fellow Chair, National Committee for Astronomy School of Physics University of Melbourne Vic, Australia 3010 Phone: +61 3 8344 5083 Fax: +61 3 9347 4783 Email: swyithe at unimelb.edu.au science.org.au/natcoms/nc-astronomy.html ==================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From john.obyrne at sydney.edu.au Sat May 24 10:11:08 2014 From: john.obyrne at sydney.edu.au (John O'Byrne) Date: Sat, 24 May 2014 10:11:08 +1000 Subject: [ASA] Bob Shobbrook Message-ID: <8D3F022A-3A44-4C85-808B-7D16315EFF53@sydney.edu.au> I?m sad to announce that Bob Shobbrook, the inaugural Treasurer of the ASA, passed away on Friday morning. Bob was a well known former member of staff from the Chatterton Astronomy Department at the University of Sydney (now part of the Sydney Institute for Astronomy - SIfA). Bob became interested in astronomy in high school in England, making his own seven-inch telescope. He did a BSc in Astronomy at St Andrew?s University before coming to Mount Stromlo in 1960 for a PhD. Bob was one of Stromlo?s first astronomy graduates, receiving his PhD in 1964 and joined the University of Sydney in 1966. In his later professional life, even after he formally retired from the university, he was a regular observer on the smaller telescopes at Siding Spring Observatory, doing photometry of variable stars. Bob is survived by his wife Robyn, herself very well know in the astronomy community as the AAO librarian for 20 years. The following Notice appeared in the Canberra Times today: ROBERT REGINALD SHOBBROOK (BOB) - 29 January 1937 - 23 May 2014 Much loved husband of Robyn. Loving father to Susan and Dave, Michael and Kristen, Fiona and Owen, Melissa and Richard.Proud grandad to 14 grandchildren. Loving brother of Jennifer and Valerie. A service for Bob is to be held in the Chapel at Gold Creek, O'Hanlon Street, Nicholls on Sunday 1 June 2014 at 12.00 noon. Private cremation will follow. No flowers by request, in lieu a donation may be made to theProstate Cancer Foundation of Australia. [photo attached of Robyn and Bob Shobbrook] John ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR JOHN O?BYRNE Associate Head (Teaching & Learning), School of Physics Associate Dean (Standards), Faculty of Science Secretary, Astronomical Society of Australia Inc. Sydney Institute for Astronomy School of Physics | Faculty of Science THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY Rm 205, Physics Building A28Rm 222 | alternate: 44-70 Rosehill St Redfern H90 (see map) Postal address: School of Physics | The University of Sydney | NSW | Australia | 2006 T +61 2 9351 3184 | F +61 2 9351 7726 E john.obyrne at sydney.edu.au | W http://sydney.edu.au/science/people/john.obyrne CRICOS 00026A This email plus any attachments to it are confidential. Any unauthorised use is strictly prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please delete it and any attachments. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This email uses 100% recycled words and ideas. Do you really need to print it? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: shobbrook.JPG Type: image/jpg Size: 79140 bytes Desc: not available URL: From john.obyrne at sydney.edu.au Sun May 25 18:26:50 2014 From: john.obyrne at sydney.edu.au (John O'Byrne) Date: Sun, 25 May 2014 18:26:50 +1000 Subject: [ASA] Reminder: How do your salary and conditions compare with the rest of the sector? Message-ID: <25B1997B-CE16-4E7B-9A98-38FD50B5F1F1@sydney.edu.au> Reminder - STA asks that you complete this survey by 30 May: 2014 Professional Scientist Remuneration Survey STA, in conjunction with Professionals Australia, is currently undertaking its 2014 Professional Scientist Remuneration Survey and invites you to participate by completing the online questionnaire.The survey has been conducted annually since 2005. Its purpose is to provide a snapshot of prevailing market salaries paid to professional scientists. It is important this type of information is current and readily available to scientists as they negotiate the terms and conditions of their individual employment contracts, or explore new employment opportunities. The survey is an important tool in establishing market rates paid to professional scientists and helps provide valuable information to those working as professional scientists and those contemplating a career in science. No identification is required to complete the survey questionnaire and all information supplied is held in the strictest confidence. A summary of results will be made available on the Professionals Australia and STA websites later in the year. The survey questionnaire is currently available for completion at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2014-PA-STA-Scientist-Survey. The survey will remain open until Friday 30 May 2014. All professional scientists working in Australia are encouraged to participate. Catriona Jackson Chief Executive Officer Science & Technology Australia Giving voice to Australian Science & Technology for over 27 years www.sta.org.au www.respectthescience.org.au catriona.jackson at sta.org.au T: 02 6257 2891 M: 0417142238 PO Box 259 Canberra City ACT 2601 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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