From jacinta.den at unimelb.edu.au Tue May 10 09:46:16 2016 From: jacinta.den at unimelb.edu.au (Jacinta Lee Den Besten) Date: Mon, 9 May 2016 23:46:16 +0000 Subject: [ASA] Diversity in Astronomy workshop 2nd announcement Message-ID: On behalf of the Organising Committee we would like to make the 2nd announcement for the Diversity in Astronomy workshop at the University of Melbourne. This year, the Women in Astronomy Chapter has become the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity in Astronomy (IDEA) Chapter and will start to address broader diversity issues in our community. So we are pleased to bring to you the first Diversity in Astronomy workshop that will continue to build upon previous workshops and broaden the idea of diversity in Astronomy and the actions we can take. This 2-day workshop (28-29 June 2016) will be held by the School of Physics at the University of Melbourne and will focus on the topics of unconscious bias, institutional change, diversity via gender, cultural and sexual identity and mindfulness. We hope the entire workshop will be of interest to astronomers of all diversity groups, and we encourage community members from all genders to attend. Over the two days there will be both presentations as well as workshop sessions. Guest Speakers include; Prof Doug Hilton, Director of WEHI Prof Sharon Bell, Chair of Women in STEMM Australia Dr Michelle Gallaher, co-founder of The Social Science and Women In STEMM Australia Dr JJ Eldrige, University of Auckland Registration is now open. The workshop is free to attend, however we request that you register for catering purposes. There will be a conference dinner (self-funded) held Tuesday evening on 28 June and a public lecture and cocktail reception Monday evening on the 27 June 2016. Registration closes June 10 Child care and travel grants for students are available, and can be requested on the registration page. The LOC can be contacted at astrodiversity2016 at gmail.com Full details can be found at https://astrodiversity16.wordpress.com Please distribute amongst interested colleagues. on behalf of Diversity in Astronomy Workshop Committee -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From skymapper at anu.edu.au Tue May 10 10:30:45 2016 From: skymapper at anu.edu.au (RSAA - SkyMapper) Date: Tue, 10 May 2016 00:30:45 +0000 Subject: [ASA] SkyMapper Early Data Release (EDR) from the Short Survey Message-ID: <7C1A0350-8C84-4498-8BE4-CEED29243C42@anu.edu.au> Dear colleagues, the SkyMapper Team is pleased to announce that the first data release from its five-year Southern Sky Survey is now available for use by Australian astronomers at http://skymapper.anu.edu.au. The science-grade Early Data Release (EDR) covers a third of the southern sky (6,700 sq. deg) in all six SkyMapper filters (uvgriz) and includes 503 million detections from nearly 20,000 Short Survey images taken between March 2014 and March 2015. These have been merged to a mean photometry catalogue of 49 million unique objects complete to 17.3?17.7 mag, pre-matched against WISE, 2MASS, UCAC4 and APASS DR9. Catalogue access (through Cone Search and TAP/ADQL) and image cutouts are available at the website and through Virtual Observatory tools like TOPCAT and Aladin (see http://skymapper.anu.edu.au/how-to-access/). Australian astronomers have exclusive access to the EDR for the first 12 months following its release, after which time the data are available to researchers worldwide. Please also note the authorship and publication policy for EDR data, available http://skymapper.anu.edu.au/policies. More information on the survey and EDR are available at the website. We encourage all Australian astronomers to use the EDR for their research and give the SkyMapper Team feedback on data quality, completeness and suggestions for improving the access tools. Later in 2016 we expect a new release (DR1) with improved calibration and faint-end data quality, and 2017 should see a major release of deeper Main Survey data. We are planning a workshop soon to gather community feedback and preview DR1. The SkyMapper Team Bug warning: there is a known bug in our TAP server implementation that deletes brackets from algebraic and logical expressions before they are passed to the database, e.g the test query SELECT * FROM master_edr WHERE u_psf<10 AND (u_psf>21 OR u_psf IS NOT NULL) does not return rows with u_psf<10 as expected. We appreciate you patience while we fix the problem and welcome any further reports of ADQL inconsistencies. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bolejko at physics.usyd.edu.au Tue May 10 10:04:21 2016 From: bolejko at physics.usyd.edu.au (Krzysztof Bolejko) Date: Tue, 10 May 2016 10:04:21 +1000 Subject: [ASA] The 2016 Annual Scientific Meeting: Program Release Message-ID: Dear colleagues, It?s our pleasure to announce the Scientific Program of the 2016 ASA's Annual Scientific Meeting. The program is available at: http://www.asa2016.org/program-1/ We would like to thank all participants who submitted their abstracts. Without you we would not be able to run the exciting conference that ASA2016 promises to be. This year we had a large number of high quality submissions. We wish we could include all of them in the program of talks, but some have been offered a poster presentation instead. All together we received 210 submissions, including 180 requests for a talk. The scientific program features 27 sessions and 136 talks, including 7 invited and 2 prize winner talks. The gender make up of the speakers is 33% (F), 66% (M), and 1% (O), repressing a slightly higher female ratio than the submissions. Regardless of whether your abstract is included in the oral program or not, we hope to see you all at the 2016 ASA Meeting in July. So if you haven't registered already, please do so now. *The deadline for Early Bird registration is very soon - 16th of May!* Please also note the extra features of the program this year: - an expanded Reception held at Sydney Observatory, with special guest the Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel, - a very special 50th anniversary gift for all registrants, - the offer to contribute to a time capsule, to help represent the Australian astronomical community in 2016 - who we are and what we do, - talks and presentations on the history of the ASA. For additional information please visit our website www.asa2016.org or email the Local Organising Committee at info at asa2016.org, and follow us on Twitter @the2016asa to stay tuned for further announcements. Best regards, Krzysztof Bolejko, on behalf of the LOC John O?Byrne, on behalf of the SOC -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kate.gunn at sydney.edu.au Fri May 13 10:10:49 2016 From: kate.gunn at sydney.edu.au (Kate Gunn) Date: Fri, 13 May 2016 00:10:49 +0000 Subject: [ASA] ACAMAR Vacancy Message-ID: <21BF42965AE9384093D6B6112ACD9CDDBAD10A2F@ex-mbx-pro-06> Australia-ChinA ConsortiuM for Astrophysical Research (ACAMAR) ACAMAR has a vacancy on the ACAMAR Australian Advisory Group (AAAG). Michael Burton is moving to Northern Ireland to take up an appointment as the Director of Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, and therefore has to relinquish his position on the committee. This position will also be appointed to the ACAMAR Management Committee (AMC). Candidates with Antarctic expertise are strongly encouraged to apply. ACAMAR has a target of at least 30% female representation on its Committees, and we also strongly encourage applications from women. If you consider yourself well placed to contribute to this Committee via your expertise and ideas, please emailcoo at caastro.org with a maximum one A4 page application with: * a brief CV, * your relevant expertise, and * any relevant conflicts of interest. The deadline for applications is Tuesday 31 May 2016 at 5pm AEST. Late applications will not be accepted. Applications will be reviewed by the ACAMAR Australian Working Group. All applicants will be informed of the outcome by 3 June 2016. A meeting of ACAMAR Australian Advisory Group is being held on 9 June, which the successful applicant will be invited to attend. ACAMAR encourages applications from everyone with the appropriate expertise and skills. Acamar (? Eridani, ???) is a bright naked-eye star visible from both Australia and China. In February 2013, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (?CAS)? and the Australian Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education (?Industry?) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on areas of common interest within astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology. The centre was officially launched in September 2015 in Beijing, to serve as an umbrella and coordination point for bilateral astronomical collaborations. An MOU has since been signed by CAASTRO at the University of Sydney to facilitate this centre. ACAMAR aims to: * build upon existing arrangements * maximise the scientific return on investment in astronomy infrastructure; * develop human capital in the field of astronomy; and * enhance our common scientific understanding of the universe. Secretariat The Australian secretariat for ACAMAR is hosted by the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), at The University of Sydney. The secretariat will provide administrative support for ACAMAR, including day-to-day operations, financial oversight and an ACAMAR WWW page. The Chinese secretariat for ACAMAR will be hosted by The Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences (PMO). The ACAMAR Working Group The members of the ACAMAR Working Group are: * Elaine Sadler - The University of Sydney * David Luchetti - Australian SKA Office, Department of Industry and Science * Lister Staveley-Smith - UWA/ICRAR * Brian Schmidt - Australian National University * Mita Brierley - Astronomy Australia Limited * Kate Gunn - The University of Sydney * Michael Burton - UNSW (now retiring) KATE GUNN | Chief Operating Officer CAASTRO | School of Physics | Faculty of Science | ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics Rm 215 Building H90 | 44-70 Rosehill Street, Redfern | NSW |2016| The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006 T +61 2 9351 2893 | M +61 411 466 080 Email kate.gunn at sydney.edu.au W http:// www.caastro.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bolejko at physics.usyd.edu.au Fri May 13 12:10:22 2016 From: bolejko at physics.usyd.edu.au (Krzysztof Bolejko) Date: Fri, 13 May 2016 12:10:22 +1000 Subject: [ASA] The 2016 Annual Scientific Meeting: Early Bird registration closing on 16th of May Message-ID: Dear colleagues, This is a reminder regarding the Early Bird registration. If you have already registered for the ASA Meeting, please ignore this email. However, if you have not done so yet, please note that the Early Bird registration ends in just 3 days. To register please visit http://www.asa2016.org/registration-1/ Please note that the registration fee already includes the cost of the dinner and reception. This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the ASA, and therefore we will have some extra features in our program: - an expanded Reception held at Sydney Observatory, with special guest the Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel, - a very special 50th anniversary gift for all registrants, - the offer to contribute to a time capsule, to help represent the Australian astronomical community in 2016 - who we are and what we do, - talks and presentations on the history of the ASA. For additional information please visit our website www.asa2016.org or email the Local Organising Committee at info at asa2016.org, and follow us on Twitter @the2016asa to stay tuned for further announcements. We look forward to seeing you all in Sydney at the 2016 ASA's Annual Scientific Meeting. Best regards, Krzysztof Bolejko, on behalf of the LOC -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From vkilborn at swin.edu.au Sun May 15 22:25:59 2016 From: vkilborn at swin.edu.au (Virginia Kilborn) Date: Sun, 15 May 2016 12:25:59 +0000 Subject: [ASA] 2016 ASA Awards Message-ID: <0AB5773417C05846AF91678429C1E4B363FC92B4@gsp-ex03.ds.swin.edu.au> The ASA is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2016 ASA Awards. The Charlene Heisler Prize winner and Louise Webster Prize winner will be presenting their research at the ASA Scientific Meeting, 3-8 July, hosted by the University of Sydney.http://www.asa2016.org/ Bok Prize for outstanding research in astronomy by an Honours or eligible Masters student Awarded to Samuel Hinton for his thesis ?Extraction of Cosmological Information from WiggleZ?. Sam completed his Honours research at the University of Queensland, supervised by Tamara Davis and Chris Lidman. Sam will be working overseas at the time of the ASA meeting and alternative arrangements are being made for a presentation of Sam?s work. In addition, Annabelle Austin receives an Honourable Mention for her thesis "Rapid Variability of Active Galaxies: PKS B1144-379 and PMN J1326-5256" completed at the University of Tasmania, supervised by Simon Ellingsen. Charlene Heisler Prize for the most outstanding PhD thesis in astronomy Awarded to Dr Vikram Ravi for his thesis ?Evincing the histories of the cosmic massive black hole and galaxy populations with gravitational waves? completed at the University of Melbourne and supervised by Stuart Wyithe and George Hobbs (CSIRO). In addition, Elisa Boera receives an Honourable Mention for her thesis ?The thermal state of the intergalactic medium 9?12 billion years ago? completed at Swinburne University and supervised by Michael Murphy. Louise Webster Prize for outstanding research by a scientist early in their post-doctoral career Awarded to Dr David Nicholls from the ANU for the paper ?Resolving the electron temperature discrepancies in HII regions and planetary nebulae: ?-distributed electrons? Nicholls, et al. (2012) ApJ 752 148. Congratulations to all our prize winners and nominees. The nominations received for the prizes were, once again, of a very high standard and a credit to their institutions. It shows that there is great breadth and strength in Australian astronomy. Many thanks to all our judges for devoting a considerable amount of their time to reading and reviewing all of the entries, and for Tanya Hill for coordinating the process. Kind regards, Virginia Kilborn President, ASA 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 WWW: http://bit.ly/24vsqSR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: