From s.brough at unsw.edu.au Tue Mar 27 11:47:04 2018 From: s.brough at unsw.edu.au (Sarah Brough) Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2018 11:47:04 +1100 Subject: [ASA] Sixth Annual GMT Community Science Meeting, Stars: Birth and Death, Sept. 13-15, 2018 Message-ID: <3dff59e7-512e-78cf-9002-dffc2aafd028@unsw.edu.au> Dear All, As AAL's Giant Magellan Telescope SAC representative I would like to draw your attention to the Sixth Annual GMT Community Science Meeting, Stars: Birth and Death being held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki in Hawaii on Sept. 13-15, 2018. The goal with these annual meetings is to bring people together across the community to hear about the most exciting current research and think about the next big questions in the field. An introduction and current status of the GMT will be presented to kick off the meeting. We look forward to a good representation of our GMT community and the broader community. Partial travel reimbursement may be provided for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. Please visit the website, https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/SHdAC5QZ29FwK7VEHzjHq4?domain=gmtconference.org, for more details. In particular, the meeting overview describes the meeting in more detail: While stars spend most of their lives as stable, fusion-powered objects, stellar birth and death involve some of the most dramatic and diverse physical processes known to astrophysicists. Stellar beginnings are shrouded in dust and difficult to observe, and the next generation of large telescopes will offer transformative opportunities to understand this first chapter of the star formation story. Stellar death is often explosive, and a burgeoning swell of data on transient objects offers great opportunities for advancing our understanding of the last chapter of the stellar story. This conference brings together experts in the fields of star formation and stellar disruptions, eruptions and explosions. We will focus on key open questions that can be solved in the upcoming era of extremely large telescopes. Best regards, Sarah -- ---------------------- A/Prof Sarah Brough ARC Future Fellow School of Physics UNSW Sydney PH: 02 9385 5470 ---------------------- From asa.ecr.chapter at gmail.com Tue Mar 27 20:07:03 2018 From: asa.ecr.chapter at gmail.com (ASA Early Career Researcher Chapter) Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2018 20:07:03 +1100 Subject: [ASA] ECR Chapter Mentoring Workshop -- Extended Registration Deadline In-Reply-To: <17ffc7b8-3b0b-39d7-a0eb-25e4da553916@gmail.com> References: <17c142d4-c684-8e18-adeb-ec47b4bf28d6@gmail.com> <17ffc7b8-3b0b-39d7-a0eb-25e4da553916@gmail.com> Message-ID: Dear colleagues, We are pleased to announce our initial list of confirmed speakers for the Mentoring Workshop to be held near Perth. Our confirmed speakers are: * Naomi McClure-Griffiths (ANU) * Dennis Stello (UNSW) * Anna Moore (ANU) * Amanda Karakas (Monash) * Minh Huynh (CSIRO) * Tara Murphy (USyd) * Sarah Maddison (Swinburne) We are also extending the registration deadline by another week to allow for further signups. The new deadline is Wednesday, April 4th. We look forward to seeing you there. Cheers, The ASA ECR Chapter Steering Committee (Manodeep Sinha, Sarah Martell, Darren Croton, Pascal Elahi, Jonti Horner, Anthea King, Simon Mutch, Belinda Nicholson, Jesse van de Sande) On 20/3/18 11:55 am, ASA Early Career Researcher Chapter wrote: > > Dear colleagues, > > This is the second announcement for the ECR Chapter Mentoring Workshop > to be held near Perth. Registration is open for the workshop and will > close on the March 27 (next Tuesday). We will send out a separate link > to pay the registration fees later on in April. Please note that the > registration fees (at most AUD 200) includes accommodation on a > twin-sharing basis, all meals, and round-trip transfers to the Perth > airport. > > Details: > ---------- > Dates: May 1 - May 4 > Website: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/e-DBCmOxDQtk7OzRiG4oeP?domain=asa-ecr.org > Register here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/asa_ecr-2018retreat-rego > > > Cheers, > The ASA ECR Chapter Steering Committee > > (Manodeep Sinha, Sarah Martell, Darren Croton, Pascal Elahi, Jonti > Horner, Anthea King, Simon Mutch, Belinda Nicholson, Jesse van de Sande) > > > On 7/3/18 10:25 am, Manodeep Sinha wrote: >> >> Dear colleagues, >> >> >> The ASA Early Career Researcher Chapteris pleased to announce our >> next ECR Mentoring Workshop, which will be held on 1-4 May near Perth >> at the Pullman Resort , >> situated in the Margaret River Region. >> >> >> This year the workshop?s theme is ?Follow your Star?,which aims to >> discuss career planning, both academic & industry based, along with >> leadership & skill building. The workshop will give attendees the >> opportunity to learn important (non-research) skills for advancing >> their career in academia or switching to industry, expand their >> network, and receive advice and guidance from our panel of mentors, >> all in a relaxed setting. The conference website >> will be >> updated with more information soon. >> >> >> This workshop is intended for late-stage PhD students, postdocs and >> very junior faculty. In past years we have had around 30 participants >> and always have a diverse group of speakers and attendees, all in a >> family friendly environment. Registration >> is now open >> and closes on 27th March, 2018. >> >> >> Please pass this message on to your colleagues; ASA members are >> encouraged to join the ECR Chapter by emailing the ECR Chapter >> Steering Committee . >> >> >> We will be in touch shortly with further details. Please plan to join us! >> >> >> Cheers,The ASA ECR Chapter Steering Committee >> >> (Manodeep Sinha, Sarah Martell, Darren Croton, Pascal Elahi, Jonti >> Horner, Anthea King, Simon Mutch, Belinda Nicholson, Jesse van de Sande) >> > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jhurley at swin.edu.au Wed Mar 28 15:34:11 2018 From: jhurley at swin.edu.au (Jarrod Hurley) Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2018 04:34:11 +0000 Subject: [ASA] ADACS Internship Program 2018 - Call for Applications In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Call for Applications ADACS Internship Program 2018 Astronomy Data and Computing Services (ADACS) is an initiative by Astronomy Australia Limited (AAL) aiming to provide astronomy-focused training, support and expertise to allow Australian astronomers to maximise the scientific return from their data and computing infrastructure. A principal component of this initiative is to empower the astronomy community to harness the potential of the next generation telescopes and astronomy simulations. Internships and hands-on experience are essential parts of our training services. They aim to give users with an intermediate to advanced level of computing expertise the hands-on experience required to progress their skills further or seek alternative career paths (if they choose to do so). The next round of this internship program is now open for applications. We expect to have up to two successful applicants in this round. These applicants will work on a project for up to three months and will be based at the ADACS Swinburne node in Melbourne. ADACS will provide a weekly stipend at a rate similar to that of a PhD scholarship. Additional support for applicants who do not reside in Melbourne can be considered. We aim to provide the successful applicants with a realistic experience of working in a professional software development environment. In addition to the technical experience to be gained from working on projects associated with first-class computational and visualization facilities the applicants will also develop first-hand experience of working in an Agile project management framework. Below we outline two potential projects that are available for the internships and the skill areas that are applicable to these projects. We would like to emphasise that the internships do not necessarily need to be limited to these projects. For example, ADACS operates a merit-based software and development service to the astronomy community and opportunities may exist to work with an ADACS developer on one of these projects. There is also the potential to shape a project to meet the skill-set and/or interests of the applicant. Potential Project 1: Large-scale Visualisation for ASKAP Data Cubes This project is a collaboration between ADACS, the Advanced Visualisation Laboratory at Swinburne and the ASKAP WALLABY science team. Astronomy has now entered to "Big Data" era where multi-wavelength spectral surveys are presenting new challenges for visualisation, analysis and discovery. A prime example is the WALLABY survey which will use the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) to provide resolved spectral imaging of many 1000s of galaxies. This project will take an existing tera-scale interactive visualisation and data-analysis framework (GraphTIVA) and make it readily available to meet the data science challenges faced by the WALLABY survey today and into the future. GraphTIVA is a high-performance, graphics processing unit (GPU)-based framework for the efficient analysis and visualization of tera-scale three-dimensional data cubes. It has previously been deployed and tested on the gSTAR supercomputing environment (see Hassan et al. 2013, MNRAS, 429, 2442) and within a cloud computing environment. Within this project the intern will work to deploy GraphTIVA on the new OzSTAR supercomputer at Swinburne and further develop the user interface (UI) to enable workflows for specific WALLABY science tasks (such as quality control of data cubes, manipulation of colour maps and overlay of source-finder results). A feasibility study will be undertaken into the suitability of replacing core features of GraphTIVA with the NVIDIA OptiX Ray Tracing Engine. There is also the potential to work on integrating the system within the CAVE2 Immersive Visualisation Platform at Monash University, thus providing further valuable experience in the use of high-end visualisation techniques. Relevant skills: * C/C++ * Python * Experience working with a linux operating system. Potential Project 2: Enhancement of the OzSTAR User Experience This project is a collaboration between ADACS, Swinburne IT Services and the Swinburne Data Science Research Institute. OzSTAR is the new supercomputer at Swinburne launched in 2018 and operates as a national facility for the astronomy community. Working closely with high-performance computing (HPC) experts within ADACS various opportunities exist to work on development projects aimed at enhancing the services available to the users of OzSTAR. For example, to develop a tool to pass information on HPC jobs to the account management system (the User Portal) so that through this portal users can generate and visualise statistics on their OzSTAR usage. This project will enable the intern to develop skills in the areas of data science and data visualisation while providing real benefit for all users of the OzSTAR facility. Relevant skills: * Python/Django * HTML5/JS/React.Js * Experience working with a linux operating system. How to Apply? Applications are due by 5 PM AEST Friday 20th April 2018. Please send your applications to jhurley at swin.edu.au making sure to include: - a one-page cover letter outlining your strengths and suitability for the internship; - a CV of maximum four-pages. Please do contact ADACS (using the email address given above) if you have any queries about the program prior to making an application. ADACS encourages applications from everyone with the appropriate expertise and skills. ADACS has a strong commitment to equity and diversity. We encourage applications from female and minority candidates. Disclaimer: The nationality of the candidate nationality and their work/student rights in Australia may impact our ability to accept some applications. Please contact the local HDR team of your university to check if you can accept such an internship opportunity or not. Please feel free to contact us and get our team involved as early as you want. ADACS is a collaboration between Swinburne University of Technology, Curtin University, and the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre. It is funded under the Astronomy National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) Program via Astronomy Australia Ltd (AAL). Best Regards, Jarrod Hurley Astronomy Data and Computing Services Swinburne University of Technology https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/aOK5CnxyErCrwm8YH9b84t?domain=adacs.org.au -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From julia.bryant at sydney.edu.au Wed Mar 28 15:51:28 2018 From: julia.bryant at sydney.edu.au (Julia Bryant) Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2018 04:51:28 +0000 Subject: [ASA] Call for membership of the Hector Galaxy Survey Message-ID: <1FD5C10C-6111-4866-8ADB-07911401A3B2@sydney.edu.au> Call for membership of the Hector Galaxy Survey Hector-I is a new multi-object integral-field spectrograph (IFS) instrument that will be commissioned on the AAT in 2019. The Hector Galaxy Survey will be the largest IFS galaxy survey, observing 15,000 galaxies over ~5 years on the AAT. Australia has had significant success with the SAMI IFS instrument. From SAMI we have determined the need for both higher spectral resolution (for de-blending emission line components and measuring higher-order stellar kinematic features - all crucial to the science case) and coverage of galaxies out to 2 effective radii. Hector will deliver both. The survey is open to all researchers working in Australia, and we are encouraging membership. If resolved spectroscopy of nearby galaxies overlaps your science, then I would like to strongly encourage you (and your students) to join the Hector Galaxy Survey team. Now is the time to join, as the detailed science cases are being formed ahead of the first observing proposal, and targets selection is underway in order to be ready for observing next year. In addition, there are some leadership roles to be filled for those people for whom Hector will be a major part of their research and that can commit a defined amount of time to those roles. Effort towards the survey can lead to co-authorship on key survey papers. Please contact me (jbryant at sydney.edu.au) if you would like to discuss those roles. I encourage you to take a look at the Hector web site https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/ZHijCZYM2VFXvDRvCz2ukN?domain=aao.gov.au and sign up to the Hector team by emailing both me and the Science team leaders for your science interests: ? Stellar populations & kinematics: Jesse van de Sande & Nic Scott (jesse.vandesande at sydney.edu.au, nicholas.scott at sydney.edu.au) ? Gas kinematics: Julia Bryant (jbryant at sydney.edu.au) ? Emission line processes: Brent Groves (brent.groves at anu.edu.au) ? Radio/HI connections: Luca Cortese & Barbara Catinella (luca.cortese at uwa.edu.au, barbara.catinella at uwa.edu.au) ? Clusters: Matt Owers (matt.owers at mq.edu.au) Key statistics of Hector-1: - hexabundles of between 61 and 217 fibres covering 15-30? across each galaxy. - 21 galaxies per pointing across a 2-degree field. - z<0.1 galaxy sample selected in stellar mass and redshift bins. - Spectral resolution of 0.13nm over 372.7-776.1nm range (R>5000 in the red). If you are already a team member (as listed on the Hector website) then there is no need to sign up again. Please do contact me if you have any questions. Julia Bryant for the Hector Team __________________________________________________________________________ Dr Julia Bryant | Senior Research Fellow Hector Project Scientist Hector Galaxy Survey Principal Investigator SAMI Instrument Scientist ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO) Sydney Institute for Astronomy (SIfA) | School of Physics | Faculty of Science Australian Astronomical Observatory THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY Physics Building A28 | The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006 | AUSTRALIA T 0432951638 T International +61 432951638 Usyd Email julia.bryant at sydney.edu.au or jbryant at physics.usyd.edu.au Web http://sydney.edu.au/science/physics AAO Email julia.bryant at aao.gov.au 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. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Roland.Crocker at anu.edu.au Thu Mar 29 21:44:56 2018 From: Roland.Crocker at anu.edu.au (Roland Crocker) Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2018 12:44:56 +0200 Subject: [ASA] invitation to nominate for open positions on the ANITA steering committee Message-ID: <1522320296.464828.1320105280.286B0873@webmail.messagingengine.com> Dear ASA Members, The ANITA (= Australian National Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics) chapter of ASA notifies that the regular terms for three positions on the ANITA steering committee are shortly coming to an end. We therefore invite interested members to nominate (or renominate) for the newly opened positions: *committee chair *two (2) steering committee positions Please nominate by 13th of April 2018 via email to Roland.Crocker at anu.edu.au. Elections will be held shortly after 13th of April if there are more than one applicant per position. Recognising our current lack of gender diversity, we particularly encourage female members of ASA with an interest in Theoretical/Computational Astrophysics to nominate. Roland Crocker Returning Officer ______________ Roland Crocker Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics Australian National University Roland.Crocker at anu.edu.au +61 2 612 50253 (office) +61 438 499 129 (mobile) https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/crocker-r -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: