[ASA] An update from your ESO UC representative

[Caroline Foster]

Please forward the following message to all potentially interested parties.


Dear fellow Australian astronomers,

This is an update from your Users Committee (UC) representative. My role is to represent Australian ESO users and act as the capillary link between ESO and the Australian community.

The ESO Users Committee met in April (UC42) to receive an update from ESO on various issues and to discuss a new set of recommendations.  Certain details and documents from the UC42 are publicly accessible at the following URL:

https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/qQmgCvl0PoCGyD0KfQm6Vo?domain=eso.org

In particular, the Users Committee Report, which includes the Australian fact sheet I prepared, based on your feedback, is available here:

https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/-bCTCwVLQmi7RDZ9UqKmFM?domain=eso.org

The report highlights the overall satisfaction of the ESO users community, but also some points for improvement. Most of the feedback has been received through the annual UC poll, which was circulated earlier this year. I would like to thank those who took the time to fill out the UC poll (34/146 Australian ESO PIs, Phase 2 delegates and archive users). This is a crucial aspect of communicating issues with your ESO UC representative and ESO itself. Australian users showed a high level of satisfaction with their ESO experience so far. Our community made a few suggestions to improve the OPC feedback (ESO’s TAC), as well as some specific phase 2 preparation and data reduction issues. All comments have been forwarded to ESO, although ESO has noted that some comments were too vague to be addressed.  ESO reminds users that the ESO helpdesk is the best avenue to report and resolve specific issues.

You will find the minutes of the Users Committee meeting at: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/_-PeCxnMRvtyQ2qwSYmERo?domain=eso.org

The recommendations resulting from UC42 are attached to this post. ESO usually provides a preliminary response to the recommendations in November via teleconference, while the final responses will be presented at the next UC meeting in April next year.

Many thanks to those who agreed to be nominated for the Observing Programme Committee (ESO TAC). I was assured that the Australian list of nominations is well populated. Another call for nominations has now started in time for the next OPC meeting. If you know someone who would be able to serve on the OPC (ESO requests for 2nd postdoc of beyond), please contact me directly. If you have been nominated, but haven’t been contacted by ESO yet, your name will stay in the system for a total of 4 periods (2 years).

Also a reminder: large program call for proposals will move to a yearly basis starting with P104. I note that this does not affect the frequency of the call for proposals for normal programs or director’s discretionary time proposals. You can read the full Time Allocation Working Group report here: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/oaN2CyoNVrcgylmkHR1DM7?domain=auditore.cab.inta-csic.es

The ESO fellowship & studentship applications are currently open (deadline 15 October) https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/i8BQCzvOWKi3m0N9HoDmKU?domain=eso.org.

The ESO fellowships were featured in the latest ESO newsletter: https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/tIWgCANZvPig1vJ2HMrzpC?domain=eso.org

As a previous ESO fellow, I can recommend these fellowships. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you would like to know more about what it is like to be an ESO fellow or about the application process.

Finally, don’t forget to sign up for the ESO science newsletter.

https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/jW76CBNZwLi1lgJBfv-g90?domain=eso.org



Clear skies!

Caroline Foster

PS: This message will also appear in the AAL ESO forum.
--
Dr Caroline Foster
ASTRO3D Fellow & ESO Users Committee Representative
The University of Sydney
Faculty of Science, Sydney Institute for Astrophysics

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