RAS E-bulletin, January 2016

•	Specialist Discussion Meeting
•	Public Lecture
•	NAM 2016 Call for parallel sessions
•	Royal Society Astrophysics Lecture
•	STARS 2016 UCLAN Conference
•	AHEAD Announcement of Opportunity Cycle 1
•	RAS Job List
•	Call for articles for A&G
•	Friends of the RAS
•	Notes for Fellows

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RAS MEETINGS 2016

The RAS Ordinary and Specialist Discussion meeting programme can be viewed on the Society's website at: http://www.ras.org.uk/events-and-meetings/ras-meetings

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The Ordinary Meeting takes place on Friday 8th January 3.50 pm to 5.30 pm. 
Programme of talks:

"The Way to the Stars" - a dramatized celebration of the history of women astronomers leading up their admission as Fellows of the RAS in 1916
RAS 2015 GROUP AWARD (G)

Louise Harra (UCL)
Exploring solar activity with the Hinode spacecraft
 
Paul O'Brien (University of Leicester)
The STFC Exoplanet Science Review

CHANGE TO USUAL TIME: PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS MEETING WILL FINISH AT THE EARLIER TIME OF 5.3O PM

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The two specialist discussion meetings on Friday 8th January are:

Modern data analysis in solar physics: progress in the automated analysis of solar features and their dynamics, held in the Royal Astronomical Society Lecture Theatre - 10 am till 3 pm 

Multiwavelength Surveys for Extragalactic Astrophysics, held in the Geological Society Lecture Theatre – 10 am till 3 pm.

CHANGE TO USUAL TIME: PLEASE NOTE THAT REGISTRATION FOR BOTH MEETINGS WILL BE AT THE EARLIER TIME OF 9.30 AM

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The RAS is celebrating the centenary of the election of its first women Fellows with a series of events and publications throughout the year. As well as the play that will take place during the ordinary meeting, there will be a special lecture on 12 January (which is also the anniversary of the founding of the Society).
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PUBLIC LECTURE 

100th Anniversary of the election of Women to the RAS Fellowship, given by Dr Mandy Bailey

Tuesday 12th January 2016 at 1 pm and repeated at 6 pm.

From its beginnings in 1820, the RAS, following the social habits of the time, only accepted men as Fellows of the Society. Despite this a number of notable women, including Caroline Herschel and Annie Cannon, were given Honorary Fellowships .Then in 1886 Miss Pogson, of the Madras Observatory was nominated for Fellowship but it was to be another 20 years before the first women were elected as Fellows of the RAS in their own right. The 14th of January 2016 marks the 100th anniversary of that election and this talk will look at those 20 years, the changing social habits of that time and consider such questions as: what happened about Miss Pogson; were women accepted in other societies; why did the King have to get involved? There are some notable names amongst the first elected women, including: Annie Maunder; Mary Proctor and the intriguing Fiammetta Wilson. This talk will give a brief look at their work and what it was that made them stand out.


RAS Public Lectures are free and all are welcome to attend. Our full programme for 2015/2016 can be viewed here https://www.ras.org.uk/events-and-meetings/public-lectures. Please contact [log in to unmask] to book a seat. 

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NAM 2016: CALL FOR PARALLEL SESSION NOMINATIONS

RAS National Astronomy Meeting 2016
Jubilee Campus, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG8 1BB
27th June – 1st July 2016

On behalf of the NAM2016 SOC we would like to invite nominations for parallel session themes for the 2016 meeting. Nominations are welcomed for any topic of research area considered relevant to the NAM. Particularly welcomed are nominations likely to have broad cross-community appeal.

At this stage nominees for parallel sessions are requested to submit to the SOC the following information by e-mail:

1. Theme and provisional title of parallel session

2. Brief (i.e. a few sentences) rationale for its nomination

3. Name(s) and e-mail address (es) of the session organiser(s)

4. Proposed duration (how many 1.5-hour blocks?) and justification.

5. Size of the anticipated audience

6. Any special requirements


The SOC will be pleased to consider nominations for multiple parallel sessions, i.e., 2 or more sessions with a linked theme that could run across several days of the NAM programme. The SOC also particularly welcomes nominations for themes that are regarded as timely, e.g. relating to current or upcoming missions.

Session nominations can be submitted from today via email to [log in to unmask] up until 5 pm UK time on 22nd January 2016. The NAM 2016 SOC will meet shortly thereafter to review the nominations received. It is expected that the programme of parallel sessions will be announced in mid-Feb 2016.

For any general questions and queries please contact the local organising committee at: [log in to unmask]

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ROYAL SOCIETY ASTROPHYSICS LECTURE: 

The monster at the heart of our galaxy
2015 Bakerian Lecture by Professor Andrea Ghez
1 March 2016, 6.30pm
 
Professor Ghez recently won the Royal Society’s Bakerian Medal – the Society’s most prestigious physics award, and she is travelling over from the U.S. to give an associated public lecture about her work on black holes.

For more information, please see: https://royalsociety.org/events/2016/03/bakerian-lecture/ 

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STARS 2016 UCLAN CONFERENCE 

Understanding the roles of rotation, pulsation and chemical peculiarities in the upper main sequence: Celebrating the life's work of Don Kurtz 

11th - 15th September 2016, Lake District, UK

Website: http://www.star.uclan.ac.uk/stars2016/

A complex relationship exists between rotation, binarity, pulsation, magnetism and chemical peculiarity in upper main-sequence stars. In the region of the HR-diagram where the classical instability strip crosses the main-sequence, one finds the delta Scuti and gamma Doradus stars, alongside the strongly magnetic roAp stars. Pulsational variability is also observed in evolved stars such as the RR Lyrae and Cepheid stars, as well as the subdwarf and white dwarf stars. Beyond the classical instability strip lie also the slowly pulsating B stars and the beta Cephei variables. Many of the stars in the upper main-sequence show chemical peculiarities in their atmospheres which are thought to result from chemical stratification aided by a combination of slow rotation, binarity, and strong magnetic fields; all theories which can be tested with time-resolved photometric and spectroscopic observations. In the era of high-quality and statistically significant samples in Astronomy, we are beginning to understand not only the physical processes that occur in these stars, but also how they interact. 

This conference will provide an opportunity for the latest results to be discussed by leading scientists at the forefront of their respective fields. The SOC welcomes applications to pre-register their interest in the conference at the website above.

For more information please contact, Daniel Holdsworth [log in to unmask]

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AHEAD Announcement of Opportunity Cycle 1 

The AHEAD (Integrated Activities for High Energy Astrophysics*) project solicits proposals for its program of transnational visits. This program offers access to some of the best European test and calibration facilities, training/mentoring on X-ray data analysis and visits of scientists/ engineers at all expertise levels.

AO-1 Call Opening:      10 December 2015
Submission Deadline:    15 January 2016, 17:00 CET

Three main calls are included in this AO.  For further information and links to the three AO-1 Calls:
http://ahead.iaps.inaf.it/?page_id=210

* AHEAD is a Research Infrastructure Program funded by the Horizon 2020 program of the European Union. Its main goal is to integrate and open research infrastructures for high energy Astrophysics. For general information on AHEAD:  http://ahead.iaps.inaf.it/

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RAS JOB LIST

The RAS Jobs List service provides email alerts for new posts for jobseekers, together with an online archive of previous mailings. For advertisers, it provides a free, moderated distribution service. Anyone can post or subscribe to the list. For further information visit:
http://www.ras.org.uk/education-and-careers/208-miscellaneous/221-jobslist
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CALL FOR ARTICLES FOR ASTRONOMY AND GEOPHYSICS

Have you considered writing an article about your work for the Society's magazine, Astronomy and Geophysics?

The Editor is looking for news items and topical review papers, communicating advances in your field to the many interested fellows working in related areas within the RAS sciences.  If you wish to write a review paper, the Editor is looking for up to 6000 words plus figures and images, discussing an aspect of science within the RAS remit. A&G does not publish original research, but rather authors should refer to key publications in the peer reviewed literature.  Although a serious scientific core to articles is expected, the Editor also likes papers that engage and intrigue, as well as inform, the reader.

If you are interested in writing for A&G, please do not hesitate to contact the Editor, Dr Sue Bowler, at [log in to unmask] , or simply submit your manuscript at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/astrogeo  
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FRIENDS OF THE RAS

If you know someone interested in astronomy that enjoys attending popular lectures and social events why not tell them about the 'Friends of the RAS'? See: http://friends.ras.org.uk/ 

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NOTES FOR FELLOWS

You can now look at minutes of RAS Council meetings: http://www.ras.org.uk/about-the-ras/council 

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