[ASA] ASM wrap and new Council

[Stas Shabala]

Dear ASA Members,

This is my first email to you as ASA President. It is unusually long – I hope to not make this a habit – but only because we have lots to celebrate as a community.

Summary for those who are time-poor:

  *   Wrap-up of the Annual Scientific Meeting
  *   ASA Prizes
  *   Your new ASA Council

Wrap-up of the Annual Scientific Meeting

A huge thanks to Richard McDermid, Elizabeth Mahony, Jo Dawson, the LOC and SOC teams, and those running hubs, for making the 2023 ASM such a success. There is a large amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to make such meetings happen, all of course done in addition to “normal” work. To give you an idea of the scale, the meeting comprised:

  *   260 in person attendees
  *   60 online attendees
  *   124 talks
  *   98 Posters
  *   45 Sparklers
  *   11 training sessions
  *   5 chapter meetings
  *   2 Town Halls
  *   3 social events
  *   2 discussion sessions
  *   1 ASA AGM
  *   1 ASA Council Meeting
  *   1 Head of Departments meeting
  *   1 Public talk

The ASM is our annual opportunity to come together as a community. In addition to the talks and posters, it was great to see vibrant discussions in various chapter meetings and town halls, and the NCA and ESO sessions on the last day. A big thank you also to all those who ran workshops: Paul Hancock (ADACS); Jackie Bondell, James Murray and Lara Sharp (EPOC); and Shari Breen and Jimi Green (SKAO).

ASA Prizes

Please join me in congratulating the winners of the various Prizes awarded at the ASM.

Best student posters
1st: Giulia Cinquegrana
2nd: Sanja Lazarevic
3rd: Natasha Van Bemmel
People’s choice: Natasha Van Bemmel

Best student sparklers
1st: Sarah Bradbury
2nd: Natasha Van Bemmel
3rd: Tommy Marshman
Honourable mentions: Nicolò Dalmasso, Bailey Martin

Best student talks
1st: Benjamin Metha
2nd: Madeleine McKenzie
3rd: Anthony Carr
Honourable mentions: Jacob Askew, Lucinda Lilley, Jonah Hansen, Rowina Nathan, Matthew Miles, Kirsten Banks, Madeline Howell

Robert Ellery Lecture (2021): Tamara Davis
   A biannual award recognising outstanding contributions in astronomy or a related field.
   Dark Energy and Cosmological Tension

The Anne Green Prize: Michelle Cluver (Swinburne)
    For a significant advance or accomplishment by a mid-career scientist.
    Awarded for her contributions to the understanding and characterisation of galaxies in the infrared, through the WISE survey, and significant novel contribution to the field of galaxy evolution, specifically in demonstrating the power and versatility of WISE mid-infrared imaging to elucidate star formation history, the role of mass quenching, and the effect of environment, in galaxy groups

The Loise Webster Prize: Joint winners Nichole Barry (Curtin) and Sven Buder (ANU)
    For outstanding research by a scientist early in their postdoctoral career, based on one publication.
    Nichole Barry: “Improving the Epoch of Reionization Power Spectrum Results from MWA Season 1 Observations” Barry et. al. (2019b) ApJ, 884, 1
    Sven Buder: “The GALAH+ survey: third data release” Buder et al. (2021) MNRAS, 506, 150

Charlene Heisler Prize: Piyush Sharda (ANU)
    For best PhD Thesis: "The role of metals from molecular clouds to galactic discs"

The Bok Prize: William McDonald (UWA)
    For best Honours or Masters thesis: "Dissociation of Dark Matter and Gas in Cosmic Large-scale Structure"
ECR Software Prize: Manodeep Sinha (Swinburne)
    For an outstanding contribution to the development of open-source astronomical software.
    Awarded for CORRFUNC – an open-source high-performance code to compute correlation functions extremely quickly.

Certificate of appreciation: Terry Cuttle
    For outstanding achievements in education, outreach and publicity of the 2023 Total Solar Eclipse

The competition for all prizes was very high, and indicates the excellent research being done by our community.
Your new ASA Council

The ASA Annual Scientific Meeting also marks the traditional changeover point for the ASA Council every second year. Your new Council is as follows:

President: A/Prof Stas Shabala
Vice President: Dr Ashley Ruiter
Immediate Past President: Prof John Lattanzio
Secretary: Dr Marc Duldig
Secretary: A/Prof John O’Byrne
Treasurer: Dr Yeshe Fenner
Councillors:

  *   A/Prof Christoph Federrath
  *   Prof Richard McDermid
  *   A/Prof Bernhard Mueller
  *   Dr Sarah Pearce
  *   Dr Ivy Wong
Prizes and Awards Coordinator: Dr Tanya Hill
Media and Outreach Cordinator: A/Prof Michael Brown
Chair, PASA Editorial Board: Dr Ivo Seitenzahl
Student Representative: Pradosh Barun Das

My sincere thanks to Cath Trott, Barbara Catinella and Richard de Grijs who have completed their terms on ASA Council. Our community is better off thanks to your service.

Cheers,

Stas Shabala, President

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A/Prof Stas Shabala
(he/him/his)
President, Astronomical Society of Australia
Discipline of Physics | School of Natural Sciences | College of Science and Engineering
University of Tasmania
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