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RAS E-CIRCULAR, 2007 January
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Happy New Year!
* January RAS Meetings
* RAS Awards, 2007
* Nominations for Council (**Feb 2 deadline**)
* RAS Meetings, 2007/8: topics sought (for London and elsewhere)
* Recent policy issues - Sustainability of the Higher Education Sector;
Pre-Budget Report; Peer Review; RAE: the future
* January Space & Astronomy Digest
* International Year of Astronomy, 2009
* Grubb Parsons Lecture (Durham, Feb 28)
* School on Single-Dish Radio Astronomy (Green Bank, W. Virginia)
Reminders:
* £1000 RAS Thesis Prizes (**Jan 31 deadline**)
* Webcasts
* Burlington House
* RAS National Astronomy Meeting 2007
* Discounts on "Encyclopedia of the Solar System" and other books
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JANUARY RAS MEETINGS - FRIDAY JANUARY 12
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=227#jan
January's Specialist Discussion Meetings are on:
"Linkages between the Solar Interior and Atmosphere"
and
"Molecular Probes of Galaxies"
in the lecture theatres of the Geological Society and the Society of
Antiquaries, respectively (both in Burlington House, Piccadilly),
10:30-15:30.
The subsequent A&G meeting is open to all, and features a theme of "new"ness:
Prof. Andrew Collier Cameron (St. Andrews)
New planets from SuperWASP
Dr Ian Crawford (Birkbeck)
The Scientific Case for Renewed Robotic and Human Exploration of the Moon
Dr Pete Grinrod (UCL)
Does Titan erupt like Io? -- A new model for explosive volcanism on Titan
Prof Roger Davies (Oxford)
A new paradigm for early-type galaxies
(Geological Society Lecture Theatre, 16:00-18:00)
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RAS AWARDS 2007
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1110&Itemid=2
Congratulations to winners of RAS Awards, 2007:
The Gold Medal: Professor J. L. (Len) Culhane
Professor Nigel Weiss
The Eddington Medal: Professor Igor Novikov
The Price Medal: Professor Andrew Jackson
The RAS Award for Service: Professor M. Aftab Khan
The Fowler Prize for Astronomy: Dr. Graham Smith
The Fowler Prize for Geophysics: Dr. Duncan Mackay
Associateships:
Prof Brian Boyle Director, Australia Telescope National Facility
Prof Virpi Niemela La Plata University, Argentina
Prof Roberto Terlevich Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica Optica y Electronica, Puebla, Mexico
Dr Laike Asfaw Director, Geophysical and Astronomical Observatory, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Prof Marcel Goossens Catholic University, Leuven, Belgium
Dr James Klimchuk Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C., USA
The Harold Jeffreys Lectureship: Professor Alan Hood
The George Darwin Lectureship: Professor Reinhardt Genzel
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NOMINATIONS FOR COUNCIL
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1115&Itemid=2
Four RAS Councillor places fall vacant at the May AGM. If you think
that you, or one of your colleagues, might contribute to the
direction and development of your Society, please submit nominations
to the Executive Secretary, David Elliott ([log in to unmask]), no later
than FEBRUARY 2.
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SPECIALIST DISCUSSION MEETINGS: TOPICS SOUGHT
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=236
For most months during the Oct-May meetings season, the RAS arranges
two Specialist Discussion meetings in central London. The Society
provides virtually all "Local Organizing Committee" functions,
including provision of the venue, advertising, and, potentially,
limited financial support for key speakers from overseas. It does,
however, rely on the Fellowship for proposals for appropriate themes
and to organize the scientific programme.
If you have a topic on which you'd like to hold a meeting in the
2007/8 season, please contact the secretary, Ian Howarth
([log in to unmask]) with a short title and 2-3 sentences outlining
the intended content and purpose of the meeting.
* Meetings are normally one-day events, but proposals for two-day
meetings will be considered.
* Meetings (of any length) outside London can also be considered; the
RAS often sponsors such meetings through its grants programme.
Please direct enquiries to Ian Howarth
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RECENT POLICY ISSUES
1 - Enquiry into the Sustainability of the Higher Education Sector
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1112&Itemid=1
The House of Commons Education and Skills Committee is investigating
the future sustainability of the higher education sector in England
and the impact of the Bologna Process
2 - Pre-Budget Report
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1111&Itemid=1
The RAS welcomes the government's continued commitment to fund
blue-skies research in UK universities
3 - Peer Review
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1109&Itemid=2
The RAS Council invites comments (from its Fellows only) on its draft
response to the RCUK Consultation on the Efficiency and Effectiveness
of Peer Review.
4 - RAE: the future
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1106&Itemid=2
The outcome of the Government's recent consultation on a new
assessment process to replace the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE)
after 2008 has been published.
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JANUARY SPACE & ASTRONOMY DIGEST
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1114&Itemid=2
Peter Bond's latest on-line summary of meetings & events of interest.
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INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF ASTRONOMY, 2009
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1117&Itemid=1
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1083&Itemid=27
The RAS will act as the UK National Coordinating Committee for
IYA2009, under the chairmanship of Professor Ian Robson; the inaugural
meeting of the planning committee was held on 30 November 2006.
IYA2009 events will be mainly national in scope; the IAU's role will
be restricted to coordinating a few global events.
In addition to local activities organised by astronomy
and science educational bodies, there will be some nation-wide
initiatives. These should :
- appeal to the media
- reach the wider general public not ordinarily involved in astronomy
- target school pupils
Your ideas and suggestions are welcome! Please contact the RAS
Executive Secretary ([log in to unmask]) or post comments on the
RAS Forum, http://www.ras.org.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=326
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GRUBB PARSONS LECTURE (Durham, Feb 28)
http://www.dur.ac.uk/physics/newsandevents/lectures/grubbparsons/
The 2006/07 Grubb-Parsons Lecture will take place on Wednesday 28
February 2007 at 4.30pm. The lecturer this year is Professor John
Zarnecki from the Open University whose lecture, "Touchdown on Titan",
will deal with the voyage of the Huygens probe to Titan. The lecture
will take place in room CG93 (the Scarborough Lecture Theatre) on the
Science Site at Durham.
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SCHOOL ON SINGLE-DISH RADIO ASTRONOMY
http://www.gb.nrao.edu/sdss07/
The Green Bank (NRAO) and Arecibo (NAIC) observatories are organising
the fourth NAIC-NRAO school on single dish radio astronomy. The summer
school will take place from 8-15 July 2007 at the Green Bank
observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia. The purpose of the school is
to allow students, postdocs, and experts in other fields of astronomy
to explore emerging techniques and applications of single-dish radio
astronomy.
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RAS THESIS PRIZES
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=35
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=36
The RAS invites nominations for:
the Michael Penston Prize (awarded for the best doctoral thesis in Astronomy
or Astrophysics), and for
the RAS-Blackwell Prize (awarded for the best doctoral thesis in
Exploration Geophysics; Physics of the Earth's Atmosphere,
Ionosphere or Magnetosphere; Planetary Physics; Solar Physics; or
Solid-Earth Geophysics)
Each prizewinner is awarded a cash prize of £1000, sponsored by PPARC
and Wiley (the Penston Prize) and by Blackwell Publishing.
Nominations should:
* be submitted a Fellow of the Society, normally the student's
examiner or supervisor
* be in the form of a citation of not more than 500 words
* be accompanied by a copy of the thesis abstract
* contain the names of two referees familiar with the thesis, at
least one of whom should be affiliated to an academic or research
establishment other than that of the candidate. Suitable referees
would be the candidate's internal and external examiners for the
doctorate.
To be eligible, the thesis must have been submitted to a University in
the United Kingdom
Nominations for the award must be received by the Executive Secretary
by January 31 of the year following that in which the thesis was
recommended for the award of a doctorate by the examiners.
Every medium to large Department in the UK should be submitting at
least one nomination - you have to be in it to win it!
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MEETING WEBCASTS
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=926&Itemid=127
A reminder that all Specialist Discussion Meetings held in the
Geological Society Lecture Theatre in the 2006/2007 season are being
made available as on-demand webcasts (with video footage and digital
presentations) and podcasts, within a week or so of each meeting.
Access requires a very simple registration process; this is
solely for monitoring purposes (we want to know how many people
are viewing the webcasts), and will not lead to any unwanted emails
etc.
Comments on the webcasts are welcome, and should be sent to Ron
Wiltshire ([log in to unmask]).
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BURLINGTON HOUSE
The Society's Burlington House apartments remain closed until the end
of 2007, to allow major refurbishment works to take place. The office
has moved to Hallam Court [77 Hallam, Street, London W1W 5HB], as have
some library services (which are, however, severely restricted).
Post (which will be redirected) should continue to be sent to
Burlington House. Telephone, fax and email addresses are unchanged.
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RAS NAM 2007
The 2007 RAS National Astronomy Meeting will be held at the University
of Central Lancashire, 2007 Apr 16-20 inclusive, and will incorporate
parallel meetings of the MIST and UK Solar Physics Groups.
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MEMBER BENEFITS: ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Fellows:
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1086&Itemid=130
Others:
http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=242&Itemid=97
We are pleased to offer members a 25% discount on the forthcoming second
edition of the "Encyclopedia of the Solar System".
A reminder that RAS Fellows are eligible for discounts on a range of
books (from OUP, Wiley, Springer, John Hopkins University Press, IoP
Publishing, GSL publishing, Canopus Books, Blackwells, and Annual
Reviews), attractions, and journals (including free access to on-line
editions of all RAS journals).
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