Subject: [DPS Members] DPS Mailing #11-03


Issue 11-03, February 11th 2011

+-----------------------------CONTENTS--------------------------------+
1) Joint EPSC-DPS 2011 meeting, Hartmann grants and Memorials for D. Hunten
2) 2011 Prize nominations
3) 2011B NASA KECK Call for proposals
4) Upcoming Meetings
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+


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JOINT DPS-EPSC 2011 MEETING

A joint meeting of the European Planetary Science Congress, EPSC, and the
American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences, DPS

The joint EPSC-DPS Meeting will take place at La Cité Internationale des
Congrès Nantes Métropole in Nantes, France, 3-7 October 2011.
This modern congress centre is very close to the centre of Nantes, an
attractive city, the historical capital of Brittany, on the west coast of
France, about 2 hours by high speed train from Paris.
The aim is to provide an attractive platform for the worldwide planetary
science community to exchange and present timely results, develop new
ideas, and to network. The format of the meeting will be a mix of plenary
sessions, topical oral and poster sessions, and workshops. Given previous
experience with EPSC and DPS we are expecting a large attendance from
around the world. We hope to make it THE planetary science meeting of 2011!
The meeting website is http://meetings.coperni
cus.org/epsc-dps2011/.
Travel funding will be available for students: Europlanet will provide
contributions to a large number of European PhD students to support their
attendance; DPS will provide scholarships to recipients of the Hartmann
Student Travel Grant (see hereafter).
The programme is currently being organized by the SOC, many thanks to those
who suggested sessions.
If you have ideas for press or media events, please communicate them to
Anita Heward, Europlanet Press and Outreach Officer, [email protected]
, or Vishnu Reddy, DPS Press officer, [email protected].

Important dates:
31 May 2011: Abstracts due (NOTE EARLY DEADLINE): call for papers will come
out shortly
21 June 2011: Letter of Acceptance to authors
7 July 2011: Letter of Schedule to authors

Future announcements: More information will be available in future updates
and posted on the meeting website as well as sent by e-mail. Please also
forward this email to interested colleagues.

Best regards,
Manuel Grande, Renu Malhotra
For the Scientific Organizing Committee

The EPSC represents a cooperation between Europlanet RI and the European
Geosciences Union. The Europlanet RI project is a EU supported initiative
to strengthen and unify European planetary science. A main objective is to
achieve a long term integration of planetary sciences in Europe through the
networking of the European research groups and to provide a major
distributed European infrastructure to be shared, fed and expanded by all
planetary scientists.
The DPS is the world's largest professional organization dedicated to the
study of the solar system and other planetary systems.

Links :
Meeting Homepage http://meetings.coperni
cus.org/epsc-dps2011/
Cité Internationale des Congrès Nantes http://
www.lacite-nantes.com/uk/discover/press-pictures.html
EuroPlaNet http://www.europlanet-ri.eu/
DPS Homepage http://dps.aas.org/

Hartmann Travel Grants for the join DPS/EPSC meeting

Starting with a generous contribution from William K. Hartmann, followed by
member contributions and matching funds from the DPS Committee, a limited
number of student travel grants are made available to assist toward
participating at the annual DPS meeting. Travel grants are primarily
intended for students, but post-doctoral scientists without other means of
support will also be considered. Travel grants for the Nantes meeting will
be no more than approximately five hundred dollars and are intended to
provide a supplement that makes the difference on whether or not a student
is able to attend the annual meeting. In some cases the travel grant may be
requested to cover the meeting registration fee. Preference is given to
students who have not received a Travel Grant in the past.
Because of the joint meeting there will be several changes to the DPS
travel grant program for this meeting only:
� DPS travel grants will be limited to students or post-docs attending US
institutions only. We have a reciprocal agreement with the EPSC that they
will fund European (and other foreign) students.
� The deadline for applications will be will be very early this year.
Application deadline is 9:00 PM PDT, Friday May 20, 2011. Late applications
cannot be accepted. All notifications will be made on or before June 3,
2011.
Please see the Hartmann Travel Grant page at the DPS web site (http://dps.aas.
org/meetings/travel_grant_application) for detailed information on
submittal and format.


Memorial and special session at DPS-EPSC for D. Hunten
Dear Colleagues,

The Lunar and Planetary Laboratory/Department of Planetary Sciences will
hold a memorial of Professor Donald M. Hunten on Friday, February 25, 2011,
to celebrate his life and his contributions to Planetary Science.
The memorial will be held at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (Kuiper
Space Sciences third-floor atrium and Room 308) from 2:30 PM until
approximately 5:30 PM. All Don's friends and colleagues are invited to
attend.
More details will be provided soon. If you plan to attend, please let Mary
Guerrieri know ([email protected]). You are
welcome to send your remembrances, etc., to Mary as well.

Please note that there will also be a special session dedicated to Don
Hunten at the Joint EPSC-DPS.

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2011 PRIZE NOMINATIONS

Every year the DPS recognizes exceptional achievement in our field. It is
time to consider nominating a respected colleague for one of the annual DPS
prizes. The Gerard P. Kuiper Prize honors outstanding contributions to the
field of planetary science. The Harold C. Urey Prize recognizes outstanding
achievement in planetary research by a young scientist. The Harold Masursky
Award acknowledges outstanding service to planetary science and
exploration. The Carl Sagan Medal recognizes and honors outstanding
communication by an active planetary scientist to the general public. The
Jonathan Eberhart Planetary Sciences Journalism Award recognizes and
stimulates distinguished popular writing on planetary sciences. Detailed
descriptions of each of the prizes and the criteria for nominees for each
are found at http://dps.aas.org/prizes.

The nomination form and instructions can also be retrieved from this
website. Anyone may submit a nomination. The nomination form and supporting
material are emailed to [email protected].

The deadline for nominations this year is April 4.


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2011B NASA KECK CALL FOR PROPOSALS

NASA is soliciting proposals to use the Keck Telescopes for the 2011B
observing semester (August 2011 - January 2012). NASA intends the use of
the Keck telescopes to be highly strategic in support of on-going missions
and/or high priority, long term science goals. NASA Keck time is open to a
wide range of disciplines including exoplanets and solar system topics,
galactic and extragalactic topics,
cosmology and high energy astrophysics. This semester and
continuing into future semesters, there is limited time available for
observations of targets based on public Kepler data or data obtained
through
the Kepler Guest Observer programs. In addition, the call for CoRoT Key
Science has been extended to semester 2012B. Proposals are also sought in
the following discipline areas: (1) investigations in support of EXOPLANET
EXPLORATION science goals and missions; (2) investigations of our own SOLAR
SYSTEM; (3) investigations in support of COSMIC ORIGINS science goals and
missions; (4) investigations in support of PHYSICS OF THE COSMOS science
goals and missions; and (5) direct MISSION SUPPORT.

The proposal process is being handled by the NASA Exoplanet Science
Institute (NExScI) at Caltech and all proposals are due on 17 March 2011
at 4 pm PDT. Please see the website http
://nexsci.caltech.edu/missions/KeckSolicitation/index.shtml for
further information and the proposal submission site. Questions not
answered on these pages can be directed to [email protected] .



4---------4---------4---------4---------4---------4---------4---------4
UPCOMING MEETINGS

A planetary meeting calendar is posted at
http://planetarynews.org/meet
ings.html
If there is a planetary-related meeting, conference or workshop of which
your colleagues should be aware, please send the date, title, URL and
location to pen_editor at psi.edu.

You may also want to consult the Planetary meetings and Conferences
Calendar at:
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/<
/a>

a) The Heliophysics and Planetary Science Education and Public Outreach
Forums are organizing a series of 1-hour WebEx sessions for scientists new
to NASA Education and Public Outreach (E/PO). These workshops are in part
being provided to help scientists understand NASA E/PO during this time
frame because of the call for supplemental E/PO proposals to funded ROSES
science grants (NOI, Feb. 9th; Proposal, March 2.) These sessions will be
held during the following dates and times.

Friday February 11th at 12pm PT; 1pm MT; 2pm CT; 3pm ET
Monday, February 14th at 10am PT; 11am MT; 12pm CT; 1pm ET
Tuesday, February 15th at 1pm PT; 2pm MT; 3pm CT; 4pm ET
Thursday, February 17th at 9am PT; 10am MT; 11am CT; 12pm ET

Please register for which hour you would like to attend at the following
URL: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/
VDP9KG5

Contacts : Laura Peticolas, Heliophysics Forum Lead
Stephanie Shipp, Planetary Forum Lead
Emily CoBabe-Ammann, Higher Ed lead, Heliophysics and Planetary Forums

Note: The Research Opportunities in Earth and Space Sciences supplemental
funding outreach solicitation is available here:
http://nspi
res.nasaprs.com/external/solicitations/summary.do?method=init&solId=%7BDB4F
8F6B-F2E2-EF81-908B-E9DA930FF19F%7D&path=open

The education solicitation can be found here:
http://nspi
res.nasaprs.com/external/solicitations/summary.do?method=init&solId=%7BB1E7
7D67-0988-7FA3-CF3E-FA0A46861783%7D&path=open

Emily A. CoBabe-Ammann, Ph.D., Executive Director, [email protected],
Tel. 720-234-2435


b) Microsymposium 52: The Moon: The First Billion Years of Crustal
Evolution
The Woodlands Waterway Marriot, The Woodlands, Texas
March 5-6, 2011

http://www.pla
netary.brown.edu/html_pages/micro52.htm

Sponsored by: Brown University, The Vernadsky Institute, Brown/MIT NLSI.

The Moon's crust is thought to have formed from substantial melting in the
latter phase of lunar accretion and subsequent intrusions. On the basis of
Apollo/Luna samples and lunar meteorites, hypotheses for the compositional
structure and evolution of the crust, such as the lunar magma ocean model
and Mg-suite emplacement, have been formulated. Coincident with early
crustal evolution, impact basin formaton significantly perturbed the
physical and thermal structure of the Moon, excavated material from the
crust and perhaps the mantle, and laterally mixed huge quantities of
crustal material. Much remains to be learned about the first billion years
of lunar history, such as the processes involved in lunar crustal
formation, the aftermath and possible overturn of residual cumulates, the
intrusive history of the crust, and the effect of impact basin formation on
these processes.

Recent missions such as Kaguya, Chandrayaan-1, Chang'E-1, and Lunar
Reconnaissance Orbiter have begun to provide data to test hypotheses for
the mineralogy and structure of the lunar crust and to assess the
importance of impact basins in early crustal and thermal evolution. High
spatial and spectral resolution image and spectrometer data have shown the
detailed location and setting of both typical and anomalous exposures of
crustal and mantle material, and now permit the linking of specific lunar
sample types to local and regional geological settings, such as central
peaks and basin rings.

Together, these new data are changing our perspective on the next
generation of important scientific topics and exploration destinations.
Upcoming missions, such as GRAIL, will provide very high-resolution gravity
data for the crust in general and lunar impact basins in particular. Lunar
landers and rovers from Russia, India, China, Japan and the United States
can be targeted to areas that can help resolve fundamental questions about
the first billion years of crustal evolution.

The goal of Microsymposium 52 is to present a summary of these new
discoveries, and to bring together representatives of the lunar geology,
mineralogy, petrology, spectroscopy, geochemistry and geophysics
communities to ponder the implications of these new findings for the next
generation of significant scientific problems. A critical aspect of this
discussion will be to assess the implications of this new perspective for
future modes and destinations for robotic exploration of the Moon.
--
James W. Head, III
Department of Geological Sciences
Brown University, Box 1846
Providence, RI 02912 USA
* * * * *
Email: [email protected]

c) 42nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC 2011),
7-11 March 2011, The Woodlands, Texas
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/m
eetings/lpsc2011/

d) Second International Conference on the Exploration of Phobos and Deimos
March 14-16, Moffett Field, CA
see: http://www.seti.org/PhD2011

e) European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2011
Vienna, Austria, 3-8 April 2011
http://meetings.cop
ernicus.org/egu2011/home.html
There will be several Planetary Sciences Sessions during the meeting, see
h
ttp://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2011/sessionprogramme/PS

f) ALMA Community days,
April 6-7, ESO, Garching, Germany
This is a two-day event aimed at familiarising the community with ALMA
Early Science capabilities, as well as the procedure and software involved
in proposal preparation and submission. Attendance could be useful to
anybody interested in obtaining ALMA Early Science observing time. The
first part of the meeting will be dedicated to both technical and
scientific presentations on ALMA and what can be expected during the first
period of Early Science. Subsequently, we will organize group tutorials on
the ALMA Observing Tool (OT), which will be used for the preparation and
submission of observing proposals. The conference website at
http://www.es
o.org/sci/meetings/2011/alma_es_2011.html
and registration is open. Note that we can host only a limited number of
participants that will be accommodated on a first-come-first-serve basis.
You can still get in a waiting list.

g) Exploring Strange New Worlds: From Giant Planets to Super Earths
Flagstaff, Arizona, May 1-6, 2011
http://nexsci.caltec
h.edu/conferences/Flagstaff

h) Japan Geoscience Union International Symposium 2011 (JpGU 2011),
Chiba-city, Japan, 22-27 May 2011,
see http://www.jpgu.org/meeting_
e/index.htm)

Note the session:
P-PS01: "Future explorations of Jupiter and Saturn system"
Giant planets are the most prominent representative bodies not only in the
solar system but also in other extrasolar systems. The origin of the Jovian
planets and the icy moons are inseparable and thus their origin, internal
structure, composition, etc. will be comprehensively discussed. In front of
the future mission Era, we'd like to promote the study of Jovian planets
and their satellites. Also, progress in developing a solar sail mission to
observe Jupiter system and Trojan asteroids will be discussed.

The Conveners
Jun Kimura
Sho Sasaki
Masaki Fujimoto
Yasumasa Kasaba
Yukihiro Takahashi
Takayuki Tanigawa
Kiyoshi Kuramoto
Department of Cosmosciences/Graduate School of Sciences, Hokkaido
University

i) Astronomical Union (IAU) Symposium 280 on:
The Molecular Universe
May 30 - June 3, 2011 Toledo, Spain

http://www.cab.inta-c
sic.es/molecular_universe

Contacts:
Prof. J.Cernicharo
[email protected]


j) 8th International Planetary Probe Workshop
6 – 10 June, 2011; Portsmouth, Virginia
4 – 5 June, Short Course: “Atmospheric Flight Systems Technologies”

Sending space vehicles to other worlds is one of humankind’s most
challenging and rewarding ventures. The 8th International Planetary Probe
Workshop (IPPW‐8) will bring together scientists, engineers,
technologists, mission designers, space agency leaders, and exceptional
students from around the world for a compelling, weeklong collaboration
focused on exploring solar system destinations via in‐situ missions.
This 8th workshop will build upon the IPPW tradition by encouraging
international cooperation in planetary probe missions, new technologies,
and scientific discoveries. In addition, students from around the world
will have a unique opportunity to present their work and to interact with
the leaders in their discipline areas.
IPPW‐8 will be held June 6‐10, 2011, near the NASA‐Langley Research
Center in southeastern Virginia, USA. Our program includes invited talks,
contributed presentations, posters, and opportunities for networking with
colleagues.
Preceding the workshop, on June 4‐5, we will offer a 2‐day short course
on
“Atmospheric Flight Systems Technologies.”
Mark your calendars now!
For more information: [email protected]

h) The Second CoRoT Symposium: Transiting planets, Vibrating stars and
their connection;
14-17 June 2011, Marseille

The first CoRoT symposium was held in February 2009 in Paris. At this
symposium, the first results were presented to the scientific community.
Since, the analysis of these initial high precision data gained scientific
maturity. In addition, the first two years of data are now public and
reviewed by a community much larger. It is thus time to gather again planet
and star communities.
The second CoRoT symposium will be held from 14 to 17 June 2011 in
Marseille (France) at the Palais des Congrès.
Besides presenting the latest results achieved in these two scientific
domains, the objective of this symposium is to highlight the
complementarity of these two fields of research. The symposium therefore
will also focus on the connection between stars and planets and what the
studies in one of the two field could bring to the other. Bringing together
the two communities will give rise to new projects that will ultimately
lead to new advances in the field of planetary systems, considered as a
whole.

You are invited to pre-register as soon as possible, for a final
registration before 15 May. You are also welcome to propose topics for
splinter sessions on half days, before 31 January.
Important dates and deadlines
* 31 March 2011: end of pre-registration
* 30 April 2011: end of abstract submission
* 15 May 2011: end of final registration and payments
* 14–17 June 2011: colloquium
* December 2011: publication of the proceedings

http://symposiumcorot2011.oamp.fr
/

i) Titan Science Meeting
June 20-23, 2011 at the Abbaye Saint Jacut-de-la-Mer in Brittany, France.

This meeting is in part motivated by the production of a Titan science book
for Cambridge University Press (to appear in 2012).
We invite the wider Titan Science community to participate in this event
and contribute either through talks or posters.
The meeting will discuss the topics Titan Atmosphere, Surface, Interior,
Origin, Magnetosphere and Plasma Environment.
It will formally start Monday morning (June 20) and end Thursday around
noon (Jun 23), but we advise arrival on Sunday (June 19).
We have set up a web site for the meeting at http://www.sp.ph.ic.ac
.uk/~ingo/Titan_Meeting
There you will find information on logistics, costs, registration, room
booking and more.
IMPORTANT:
Registration for the meeting is open now and closes on April 17, 2011. The
venue can only accommodate 100 participants, so we ask you to register as
soon as possible to secure a slot! To register and for more meeting info,
please visit the above web page.
If you have any questions, please contact one of us!
Looking forward to seeing some of you at the event,
Ingo Mueller-Wodarg , Caitlin Griffith , Tom Cravens , Emmanuel Lellouch



j) 9th IAA Low Cost Planetary Missions conference
June 21-24, 2011.
Hosted at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel
MD.

Abstract Submission is Open!
The 9th Low-Cost Planetary Missions Conference, organized and hosted by The
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, MD, is an
international forum for planetary scientists, technologists, engineers,
managers, and agency officials to collect and exchange information and
ideas for making this class of robotic mission scientifically valuable and
yet affordably low cost.
The Low-Cost Planetary Missions conference is designed to increase and
enhance the global community of practitioners. Areas covered in the
conference program include, but are not limited to: missions and scientific
results; mission planning and operations; mission management, technology
and engineering, and delivery methods.

http://lcpm9.jhuapl.edu/index.php<
/a> for more information.

k) IUGG/IAMAS General Assembly
Melbourne 28 June- 7 July 2011, see:
http://www.iugg2011.com/pr
ogram-iamas.asp

At that meeting, the ICPAE Commission has planned two Symposia:

M05 : Comparative Atmospheres of the giant planets and their satellites
Conveners : Athena Coustenis, Darrell Strobel and Frank Mills
Scope: Papers are invited which report progress on all aspects of our
current understanding of the evolution of atmospheres of the outer planets,
their moons and their interactions with their environment (rings,
magnetosphere, surfaces). The emphasis will be on insights gained from
recent space missions, including Cassini-Huygens and Earth-orbiting
satellites. Contributions describing the atmosphere-related objectives of
the relevant missions, analysis of observations, and the results of model
simulations of atmospheric evolution are also welcome. Research on
exoplanetary atmospheres in comparison to the ones in our solar system is
also of relevance. The relation of all of these aspects to the field of
Astrobiology shall be put forward.

J-M07 : Atmospheres and ices on terrestrial planets
Conveners: Dimitri Titov, Ralf Greve, Athena Coustenis
Scope: Papers are invited on the physics and chemistry of the lower, middle
and upper atmosphere, ionosphere and surface ice of the inner planets and
comets. Comparative studies of the atmospheres of Venus, Earth and Mars, as
well as the ices on Earth and Mars, are also invited, with emphasis on the
differences and similarities in their climates. Results from recent
missions to Mars, Venus and the terrestrial planets in general are of
particular interest. Reports on improvements in general circulation models
of the thermosphere and lower atmospheres of the planets, coupled
atmosphere/cryosphere models and descriptions of future planetary missions
are also invited, as well as advances in laboratory experiments.

l) ORIGINS 2011
ISSOL and Bioastronomy Joint International Conference
Montpellier, France, July 3rd-8th 2011
http://www.origins2011.univ-m
ontp2.fr/


Due date for submission is February 19th. Additionally, the travel grants
are due the same day! (You must submit and abstract to be considered for a
travel grant.)

Muriel Gargaud & Robert Pascal

Chairs of Origins 2011 Organizing Committee

m) JENAM2011
St. Petersburg, Russia, 4-8 July 2011.
http://jenam2011.org/conf/

S2: Planets of the Solar System and Beyond
Conveners: Mikhail Marov (Vernadsky Inst.Geochemistry/Keldysh Appl. Math.
Inst. Russia), Therese Encrenaz (Observatoire de Paris, France)

The symposium will be a meeting place for exchanging new results and
discussing future ground-based and space projects. The symposium will be
organized in six sessions:
-The Moon. Conveners: Sasha Bazilevsky, Yves Langevin
-Inner planets. Conveners: M. Lopez-Valverde, Igor Mitrophanov
-Outer planets. Conveners: Therese Encrenaz, Oleg Korablev
-Small bodies. Conveners: Maria-Teresa Capria, V. Emel'yanenko
-Exoplanets and planetary cosmogony. Conveners: Artie Hatzes, Leonid
Ksanfomality, Helmut Lammer
-Astrobiology. Conveners: Athena Coustenis, Alexei Rozanov

Deadline for abstracts : 25 April 2011


n) ASTEROIDS, COMETS, METEORS 2011
An International Conference On Small Solar System Bodies
July 18-22, 2011
Niigata, Japan

The scope of presentations and discussion is broad, including all topics
related to asteroids, comets, and meteors. ACM 2011 is expected to bring
together experts on small-bodies studies from around the world. It will
be the first meeting held after several significant and anticipated
events, which include the return of "Hayabusa" mission and the expected
result of "Dawn", "EPOXI" and "NExT", as well as many others. ACM 2011
will highlight the research currently being conducted, and encourage
discussion among researchers in various areas, and identify new avenues
of research.
General information and important dates are available at:
http://chiron.mtk.nao.ac.jp/ACM
2011/
All the process of registration and abstract submissions etc. should be
performed in the USRA/LPI meeting portal site with the kind help of the
Lunar and Planetary Institute. You can register your e-mail address for
receiving further information of the ACM2011 at the following site:
https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meeting_portal/iofi/?mtg=acm2011
21 March 2011 Abstract deadline21 May 2011 Deadline for early registration
at reduced rate

o) IAU Symposium 282
"From Interacting Binaries to Exoplanets: Essential Modeling Tools"
July 18-22, 2011
at Tatranska Lomnica, Slovakia
http://www.ta3.sk/IB2E/

p) Gordon Research Conference on Origins of Solar Systems
July 17-22, 2011, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA
Chair:Michael R. Meyer; Vice Chair:Edward D. Young

The 2011 Gordon Research Conference on Origins of Solar Systems will take
place at Mt. Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA 17-22 July. This unique
interdisciplinary meeting includes astronomers and astrophysicists
interested in star and planet formation, planetary scientists and
cosmochemists interested in the early history, structure, and evolution of
the Solar System, as well as scientists in related disciplines. By bringing
together this mix of expertise the conference attempts to address
fundamental questions that are not tractable within the confines of just
one discipline. Our goal is to understand whether planetary systems like
our own, and the potential for habitability that they represent are the
exception or the rule in the Milky Way galaxy.
The focus of the 2011 meeting (the 11th since this series began twenty
years ago) will be "Composition of Forming Planets: A Tool to Understand
Processes". Topics covered will include: 1) the initial conditions for
planet formation in circumstellar disks, including estimates of solar
nebula composition from the Genesis mission; 2) the evolution of the
physical structure of the gas and dust from which planets form; 3) progress
in our theoretical understanding of the major physical processes that
control planet formation; 4) the interplay between disk dynamics and disk
chemistry in determining the composition of forming planets including new
results from the Herschel Space Telescope; 5) meteoritic constraints on the
physical and chemical conditions in the solar nebula; 6) the role of giant
impacts in the structure and evolution of forming planets; 7) satellites
and rings of giant planets as mini-laboratories to study the process of
planet formation; 8) current census of extra-solar planets including new
results from the Kepler and COROT missions as well as other facilities; 9)
the essential chemical conditions for life and whether those are readily
obtained through our current understanding of planet formation; and many
other topics.
The conference will continue the usual format of invited lectures, extended
discussion, and poster sessions. The meeting provides an excellent
opportunity for young researchers to present their latest research results
and to participate in the dynamic informal conversations that are typical
of a Gordon Conference. We encourage young scientists, including graduate
students and postdoctoral fellows, to attend. Special efforts will be made
to promote interactions between invited speakers and junior participants
and we expect to provide some financial support to facilitate the
latter’s participation.

q) 2011 Sagan Summer Workshop: Exploring Exoplanets with Microlensing
Pasadena, CA, July 25-29, 2011
http://nexsci.caltech.edu/wo
rkshop/2011

ur First Announcement Of Rings 2011 Scientific Workshop
Tentative Dates: July 27-29, 2011
Location: Cornell University in Ithaca, New York

This workshop will explore the present state of investigations into
the structure, composition and dynamics of planetary rings, emphasizing
recent results from the Cassini Mission to Saturn as well as current
theoretical work and numerical simulations. The format will combine
daily oral sessions with ample time for splinter meetings and informal
discussion. Contributed oral and poster papers are welcome.
Possible session topics include ring origins, ring composition
and particle size distributions, gravitational over/instablities
and accretionary phenomena, dynamics of ring-embedded objects,
dusty ring features' interactions with the electromagnetic environment,
and comparative studies of various ring/disk systems.
In addition to formal sessions we will allow time for outdoor activities
to make the best of Ithaca's scenic setting in the heart of the Finger
Lakes. These might include hikes to spectacular waterfalls, a dinner
lake cruise featuring wines from local vineyards, world-renowned museums
(Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Corning Museum of Glass, Museum of the
Earth), and more.
Participation in the workshop is open to anyone, but space may be
limited to ~100 participants on a first-come, first-served basis.
Instructions for registration and abstract submissions will be given at
a later time, but if you think you may attend, please e-mail M. Hedman
at [email protected] so
we may begin to obtain a rough head
count. The meeting dates may shift slightly depending upon availability
of rooms in Ithaca. Please let us know if you would prefer other dates.
Feel free to forward this notice to any interested colleagues

s) Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS) 2011
August 8-12, 2011, Taipei.
http://
www.asiaoceania.org/aogs2011/public.asp?page=home.htm
Abstract deadline : 15 March 2011.


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