From daniel.price at monash.edu Mon Jun 19 13:58:13 2017 From: daniel.price at monash.edu (Daniel Price) Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2017 13:58:13 +1000 Subject: [ASA] Fwd: PASA 2016 Impact Factor References: Message-ID: Dear ASA members, I am delighted to announce that the 2016 PASA impact factor has been released and is 4.095. This is an increase from the 2015 impact factor of 3.245 and is an all-time record for PASA (see graph attached). For comparison, here are a few of our competitor journals impact factors: PASJ: 1.859 (2015 IF was 1.961) PASP: 4.446 (2015 IF was 4.422) Monthly Notices: 4.961 (2015 IF was 4.952) A&A: 5.014 (2015 IF was 5.185) Ap J: 5.533 (2015 IF was 5.909) On behalf of the Editorial Board I would like to everyone from the ASA who has contributed articles in the last few years, leading to this very strong result for the journal. Particular thanks go to Amanda Karakas, the MWA collaboration, and Aaron Robotham for well-cited contributions. Yours in publishing, Daniel PS: Impact factor is computed from citations in 2016 to papers published in 2014 and 2015 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: pasa-impact-factor.001.png Type: image/png Size: 122635 bytes Desc: not available URL: From fiona.audcent-ross at uwa.edu.au Mon Jun 19 16:46:44 2017 From: fiona.audcent-ross at uwa.edu.au (Fiona Audcent-Ross) Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2017 14:46:44 +0800 Subject: [ASA] Deadline extended - Nominations Needed for the Inclusion, Diversity and Equity in Astronomy (IDEA) Chapter of the ASA Steering Committee Message-ID: <626F3D46-88FD-42BD-BA9B-D0C3B4DF948B@uwa.edu.au> Wanted! Motivated diversity champions as well as a committee chair to promote and assist the career development of minority groups in our astronomical community. Nominations are now due by 23rd June, so it?s time to let our returning officer know that you are interested in getting involved. Personally I have found being on the committee is very rewarding and not an onerous time commitment. The details on how to nominate yourself for one of the positions are set out below. If you have any questions please get in touch with myself or any of the other committee members (https://asa-idea.org/about/steering-committee/). Kind regards, Fiona Audcent-Ross - IDEA Secretary (and student representative) (email fiona.audcent-ross at icrar.org) Sarah Martell - Returning Officer (email: s.martell at unsw.edu.au) -------------------- The IDEA Chapter of the ASA aims to promote and assist the career development of minority groups in the Australian astronomy community. The Chapter represents minority groups working in astronomy in Australia, raises awareness of issues faced by these groups and undertakes to establish best practice guidelines for supporting the inclusion of these groups in our community. The IDEA Chapter has been active for over seven years, and has organised activities that have been beneficial to both women and men working in astronomy, including: - Organised highly successful national workshops (Women in Astronomy/Diversity in Astronomy) - Conducted special sessions at the ASA Annual Science Meetings - Organised ?Speed-Meet-a-Mentor? sessions at the ASA Annual Science Meetings - Organised Rainbow Allies Dinners at the ASA Annual Science Meetings - Collated statistics on women in Australian astronomy - Lobbied for best practice for organisations in STEM, and - Organised the Pleiades Award initiative with 9 Bronze and 4 Silver and 1 Gold levels awarded to organisations over the past 2 years ASA members are welcome to join the Chapter by registering at the ASA?s new membership site (https://asa.wildapricot.org - click on the CHAPTERS tab to do this). The IDEA Chapter is run by a steering committee that plays a leading role in devising and implementing initiatives to fulfil the Chapter?s goals. The committee consists of a Chair, six steering committee members, a student representative, an ASA Council representative and an Early Career Researcher Chapter representative. Terms are held for two years (full representatives) and one year (student representative). We are now inviting nominations for the committee Chair, three full committee members and one student representative by 19 June. These positions are open to all Chapter members and we particularly encourage members from diverse backgrounds to consider nominating for one of these positions. Existing steering committee members can renominate if they wish. If there are more nominations than positions we will then ask the chapter members to vote online in due course. The election schedule is: - call for nominations: 5 - 23 June - election period: 26 June - 7 July - results announced: 11 July (at ASA ASM IDEA Chapter Lunch) - new positions commence: 17 July Please email your nomination to the Returning Officer for this election (Sarah Martell: s.martell at unsw.edu.au), as my committee position is also up for re-election. Each nomination must include a brief paragraph summarising your interest in the position and how you envisage contributing to the broad goals of the Chapter. Please note that this information will be made available to voters. At this stage on behalf of the IDEA committee I would like to thank Sarah Brough, Katie Mack, Celine d?Orgeville, and Jill Rathborne for their contributions. I have also reached the end of my one-year term and am stepping down. Kind regards, Fiona Audcent-Ross - IDEA Secretary (and student representative) Sarah Martell - Returning Officer (email: s.martell at unsw.edu.au) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From vkilborn at swin.edu.au Mon Jun 19 23:42:17 2017 From: vkilborn at swin.edu.au (Virginia Kilborn) Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2017 13:42:17 +0000 Subject: [ASA] Fw: Strategic Partnership with ESO - Implementation update [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED] In-Reply-To: <3b2768e1c7ec448084588c317ea1a9f0@PPAC01EXC008.PROD.PROTECTED.IND> References: <3b2768e1c7ec448084588c317ea1a9f0@PPAC01EXC008.PROD.PROTECTED.IND> Message-ID: Dear ASA members - Please find an update on the Australian strategic ESO partnership below. cheers Virginia Prof. 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 ________________________________ From: Optical Astronomy Sent: Friday, 16 June 2017 12:43 PM To: Optical Astronomy; 'vkilborn at astro.swin.edu.au'; Luchetti, David; 'mark.mcauley at astronomyaustralia.org.au'; 'Andrew.Hopkins at aao.gov.au'; Katrina Sealey; Neville Legg; 'r.webster at unimelb.edu.au'; Couch, Warrick; 'matthew.colless at anu.edu.au'; 'ems at physics.usyd.edu.au'; 'lisa.kewley at anu.edu.au'; Matthew Bailes; 'peter.quinn at uwa.edu.au'; 'Douglas.Bock at csiro.au'; Karl Glazebrook; Aleksandar Subic; 'dvc.research at anu.edu.au'; 'n.fisk at unsw.edu.au'; 'duncan.ivison at sydney.edu.au'; 'fred.watson at aao.gov.au'; Alan Duffy; 'lisa.harvey-smith at csiro.au'; 'b.boyle at unsw.edu.au'; 'brad at mso.anu.edu.au' Cc: Weston, Sue; Urquhart, Jane; Mikedakis, Emmi; Stevenson, Andrew; Doyle, Damian; Schwager, Michael; MediaTeam; Langford, Simon; Dove, Virginia; Cook, Virginia; Chapple, Kate; Bateman, Genevieve Subject: Strategic Partnership with ESO - Implementation update [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED] Dear Astronomy Stakeholders This is the second in a series of regular communications to keep you informed of what progress has been made by the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science in implementing the Australian Government?s decision to enter into a 10-year Strategic Partnership with the European Southern Observatory (ESO). Immediate Priority: ESO arrangement As you are aware, the department has been negotiating the terms of the Strategic Partnership with ESO within a very tight timeline. Our objective was to have all principle matters of a draft (sub-treaty level) memorandum and annexed binding contract approved by the ESO Council at its meeting of 31 May?1 June. This was the last opportunity to obtain ESO Council approval prior to the September deadline for astronomers based in Australia to apply competitively for observing time on ESO optical/infrared telescopes at La Silla Paranal Observatories (LPO) in the ESO Period 101 ? the observing semester running from April- September 2018. I am very pleased to report that on 31 May the ESO Council unanimously authorised the Director General to conclude and sign the arrangements for the strategic partnership with Australia under the boundary conditions agreed with Australia. This approval clears the way for us to negotiate final details and navigate our internal government approvals. At this stage, we hope to have the Strategic Partnership documents ready for signing in July 2017, when the ESO Director General plans to visit Australia for the official launch of CAASTRO-3D. We will provide more information on the specific arrangements as soon as we can. The essence of the arrangement is for Australia-based astronomers to have access to LPO facilities, Australian companies to have access to LPO contracts and Australian institutes to be involved in LPO instrumentation ? all on the same footing as ESO member states. For astronomers interested in applying for time on the ESO telescopes at La Silla Paranal Observatory, the next ESO announcement of observing time will be available from around the end of August 2017. Please monitor http://www.eso.org/sci/observing/phase1.html for further details. Australia?s domestic capability With significant progress on the ESO arrangements, the next priority for the department will be to progress arrangements for the Sydney-based instrumentation capability. To ensure expert input in this planning, the department will establish a high-level reference group and conduct further consultation, including with the AAO Advisory Committee, over coming weeks. If you have any questions, please don?t hesitate to reply to this email address opticalastronomy at industry.gov.au, which will be exclusive to the implementation of the Government?s optical astronomy decision and related changes. The department appreciates the community?s engagement and involvement in the process to date, and looks forward to working with you on the next steps in the implementation of the 2017-18 Budget measure ?Maintaining Australia?s Optical Astronomy Capability?. Clare McLaughlin General Manager Science Agencies Governance Branch Science and Commercialisation Policy Division +61 2 6213 6171 | +61 (0) 439 281 393 Clare.McLaughlin at industry.gov.au Department of Industry, Innovation and Science | www.industry.gov.au | www.science.gov.au [cid:image003.png at 01D2E69D.95E0FE50] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image002.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 357 bytes Desc: image002.jpg URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image003.png Type: image/png Size: 15768 bytes Desc: image003.png URL: From renu.sharma at uwa.edu.au Wed Jun 21 18:03:01 2017 From: renu.sharma at uwa.edu.au (Renu Sharma) Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2017 16:03:01 +0800 Subject: [ASA] Reminder- Inviting Applications for ICRAR Visiting Fellowship for Senior Women in Astronomy Message-ID: <7B93E3ABF1E62946899AF9374F443D9002395A7E01A1@IS-WIN-383.staffad.uwa.edu.au> 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" for 2017-18. Please see detailed information on: http://www.icrar.org/about/visiting-fellowship/ Please also find attached the fellowship poster. The main objectives of the fellowship are to: * Create opportunities for young researchers, particularly women to learn career development and work-life balance strategies from potential senior role models. * Enable scientific interaction between early career researchers and graduate students, particularly women, with senior academic visitors. * Explore opportunities for developing mentoring relations. * Enrich the research environment at ICRAR. * Create opportunities to foster national and international collaborations. The Fellow is expected to take part in a range of mutually discussed and agreed activities in line with the objectives of the Fellowship and spend time at both the ICRAR Nodes. What the Fellowship provides ICRAR will offer one fellowship per calendar year and will provide: * $5,000 per month for two to 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 see application procedure on link above or in the attached document. Applications close on 30 June 2017. Applications should be submitted via info at icrar.org. We look forward to receiving applications from interested candidates. Kind regards Renu Dr Renu Sharma GAICD, FLWA Associate Director and COO 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 2017-18.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 603334 bytes Desc: ICRAR Visiting Fellowship for Senior Women in Astronomy 2017-18.pdf URL: -------------- next part -------------- An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: ATT00001.txt URL: From maria.Cunningham at unsw.edu.au Thu Jun 22 20:51:51 2017 From: maria.Cunningham at unsw.edu.au (Maria Cunningham) Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2017 10:51:51 +0000 Subject: [ASA] Could you circulate this meeting announcement for me? Message-ID: <45B2D8D5-5D85-4A0B-9ABA-EBE457B97287@unsw.edu.au> Hi All, If you could circulate the notice of this informal meeting to be held at UNSW the week after the ASA it would be very much appreciated: Meeting: New Directions for Molecular Line Astronomy in Australia ** Dates: 19th - 20th July 2017 ** Location: University of New South Wales, School of Physics, Old Main Building Room G32. Virtual attendance and participation is also possible - please see below. ** Cost: Free ** Expression of interest for more information on this meeting: Please email maria.cunningham at unsw.edu.au, and we will add you to the mailing list. ** Topics: * Observational molecular line astronomy at all wavelengths; * Australia and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT); * Facilities that Australian astronomers can access, both now and in the future; * Statistical methods for analysing large molecular-line datasets; * Hands-on workshop on principal component analysis (PCA). ** Rationale: The interstellar medium in the Milky Way Galaxy is extremely complex, being a mixture of high energy particles, warm and cool atomic gas, and molecular gas, the latter being the phase where star formation takes place. Because star formation drives the evolution of galaxies, understanding both how stars form, and how they interact with all phases of the ISM is key to understanding the evolution of galaxies. Australia is investing heavily in a new generation of low frequency telescopes in radio quiet zones (frequencies of1800 MHz and below, down to 100 MHz), such as ASKAP, MWA, and, eventually, SKA. These new facilities in radio quiet zones will enable us to continue and extend the research Australia has done so successfully on centimetre molecular-line transitions in the past, before terrestrial radio interference swamped these frequencies (apart from a few protected bands) in the early 1990s. However, to understand what centimetre transitions of molecules are telling us about star formation and physical conditions in the interstellar medium, we need also higher-energy transitions, such as those that will be detected in the MALT45+ ACTA legacy survey, and the surveys being undertaken at even higher frequencies on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). In this meeting we discuss which molecular-line telescopes and observations are available to Australian astronomers, now and in the future, and which analytical techniques are most likely to be useful in analysing the data available. We will discuss some of these analytical methods, and provide hand-on examples, including image analysis techniques such as principal component analysis. Python scripts for PCA will be made available to participants to work on their own data, and support in interpreting the data will be provided at the workshop. ** Would you like to give a talk? If you would like to talk at this meeting, please email Maria.cunningham at unsw.edu.au with a title and short abstract. We encourage community participation. Currently we have set aside 1.5 days for the meeting, but this can expand to fill 2 days of needed. ** Virtual attendance We plan to use Zoom to allow remote participation in the meeting. We can also set up Skype and other parallel remote access methods if required. ** Organising Committee: Maria Cunningham (UNSW), Shari Breen (U Syd), Jessica Dempsey (East Asia Observatory) ----- Dr Maria Cunningham Senior Lecturer School of Physics UNSW Sydney Sydney NSW 2052 Australia Ph: +61-2-9385 5662 Fax: +61-2-9385 6060 Email: maria.cunningham at unsw.edu.au CRICOS Provider No 00098G -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From john.obyrne at sydney.edu.au Fri Jun 23 09:36:03 2017 From: john.obyrne at sydney.edu.au (John O'Byrne) Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2017 23:36:03 +0000 Subject: [ASA] GMTO Newsletter - June 2017 Message-ID: <6237B5F6-DC54-4B7C-836F-963527D1762F@sydney.edu.au> Having trouble viewing this email? Visit: http://www.gmto.org/2017/06/june-2017 [http://files.constantcontact.com/4fb6335e001/fdad0c05-e14d-4031-bc38-46706d9cca22.jpg] GMTO Newsletter - June 2017 Welcome to the June newsletter Spring 2017 has been a time of good progress at the Giant Magellan Telescope project. In May, GMTO President, Dr. Robert N. Shelton, completed 100 days in office. He has reached out to GMTO's Founder institutions, making connections with institutional leaders and development professionals. He has applied his expert leadership skills within GMTO and is closely engaged with the Board of Directors. The deadline for proposals for the final design and fabrication of the telescope mount closed in May, and GMTO received five proposals from teams spread across three continents. This level of response is encouraging to the project team, and we are confident of getting a great outcome from the process. In June, the team at the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab at the University of Arizona began polishing the front surface the second primary mirror segment using new tools that they developed and tested. The mirror lab team will spend approximately 18 months polishing this mirror while working on other GMT mirror segments. We look forward to sharing our recent progress with you. Remember you can always keep up to date with what's happening at GMTO from our website, gmto.org, or from our presence on social media. -Dr. Patrick McCarthy Read the newsletter here First visitors to the GMT Residence [http://files.constantcontact.com/4fb6335e001/4958506f-b24a-40fc-910d-996304674d2c.jpg] The GMT Residence In mid-March, the new GMT Residence at Las Campanas Observatory became fully operational and soon after we welcomed a large group of visitors from one of GMT's Founder institutions, along with the US Ambassador to Chile, the US Embassy's science and press attach?s and their staff. The entire GMTO Chile staff were involved in the coordination of the visit, led locally by GMTO Representative in Chile, Dr. Miguel Roth, and Outreach Coordinator, Valentina Rodr?guez. The overnight program included a visit to the nearby Magellan telescopes, as well as to the GMT site and summit offices. Read more... Request Telescope Mount Proposals: Update [http://files.constantcontact.com/4fb6335e001/1e30caf4-c239-4048-bdb5-317f9e23d323.png] Detail of the telescope mount In February, the GMT Project released a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the final design and construction of the telescope's main structure ("the telescope mount"). The deadline for responses was May 19, 2017, and we are delighted to report that GMT received proposals from five teams spread across three continents. The next stage of the process is to evaluate the proposals and make a selection - a process which is expected to take approximately two months. More information about the RFP process is available on the GMTO website. Profile: Marianne Cox, Software Release Manager [http://files.constantcontact.com/4fb6335e001/eceb44ca-c343-4e7b-8969-feefc4348fdc.jpg] Marianne Cox We are very pleased to welcome Marianne Cox to the GMTO family. Marianne joins us as GMTO's Software Release Manager where she is responsible for building, integrating, deploying and delivering the different software releases of the GMT Software and Control System. For this newsletter, Marianne answered some questions about her life and career. Read the Q&A... GMTIFS: Designing an instrument at the Australian National University [http://files.constantcontact.com/4fb6335e001/96238e3a-1070-4dc7-99d7-9279d9e9c2c5.jpg] Dr. James Gilbert and Ian Price at ANU. A first-light instrument for the GMT is being developed at the Advanced Instrumentation and Technology Centre at the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics at the Australian National University. GMTIFS - the GMT Integral Field Spectrograph - is a near-infrared integral field spectrograph and camera that is specially designed to look at fine detail in objects such as the centers of galaxies and disks associated with young stars. Read more... Community Science Meeting: Registration Open [http://files.constantcontact.com/4fb6335e001/e3421347-99fd-4be1-bf7f-23904ba6b3fc.png] Click to view poster Registration is now open for the 5th Annual GMT Community Science Meeting. The meeting, Chemical Evolution of the Universe, will take place September 17-20, 2017 at the Tarrytown House Estate in Tarrytown, NY. The meeting will bring observers, modelers, and theorists from around the world together to discuss the chemical evolution of the Universe across the entire sweep of cosmic history, with an eye toward the progress enabled by the coming extremely large telescopes. The meeting program will encourage workshop-style discussion at a beautiful retreat in the Hudson Valley. There is no registration fee. Partial travel reimbursement may be provided for graduate students and postdocs. Read more... Public outreach activities in Chile [http://files.constantcontact.com/4fb6335e001/912a9435-4e17-4705-831d-232561e64522.jpg] Valentina Rodriguez at Astroday in March Public engagement is a priority for GMTO in Chile. We want citizens, especially children, to value the amazing skies of northern Chile and become aware of the enormous potential that this entails. We have carried out several activities in the past months to engage with the public, both in Santiago and La Serena. We were happy to see the enthusiasm demonstrated by people of all ages and backgrounds. Read more... Join our mailing list GMTO Corporation | +1 626 204 0500 | Email us | gmto.org STAY CONNECTED: [Like us on Facebook] [Follow us on Twitter] [View our profile on LinkedIn] [Find us on Google+] [View on Instagram] [View our videos on YouTube] GMTO Corporation, 465 N. Halstead St., Suite 250, Pasadena, CA 91107 SafeUnsubscribe? john.obyrne at sydney.edu.au Forward this email | Update Profile | About our service provider Sent by gmtadmin at gmto.org in collaboration with [Constant Contact] Try it free today -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: