Issue 13-31, November 27, 2013
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1) PLANETARY SCIENCE DIVISION RESEARCH & ANALYSIS PROGRAM RESTRUCTURING VIRTUAL TOWN HALL
2) HOW HAVE THE SEQUESTER CUTS AFFECTED YOU?
3) RESULTS OF CFHT’S ANNOUNCEMENT OF OPPORTUNITY FOR NEW INSTRUMENTATION AND UPGRADES
4) REMINDER : 2014 ONLINE MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS
5) JOBS/POSITIONS OPPORTUNITIES
6) UPCOMING MEETINGS
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PLANETARY SCIENCE DIVISION RESEARCH & ANALYSIS PROGRAM RESTRUCTURING VIRTUAL TOWN HALL
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
12:00 noon to 4:00 pm (EST)
The Planetary Science Division announces a virtual town hall presenting the Research and Analysis Program Restructuring. The town hall will be held on Tuesday, December 3, 2013, 12:00 noon to 4:00 pm (EST). A presentation by Jonathan Rall will be followed by a question/answer period. The town hall will be live-streamed with participation available to anyone having Internet access.
You can attend by connecting via adobe connect and listening through your computer (no phone line needed).
If you would like to ask a question type it into the chat room. A moderator will be collecting all the questions and asking them in the order they are received.
To log in to the Adobe Connect link, go to https://connect.arc.nasa.gov/randa as a “Guest” using your full name.
Slides presenting the historical background of the R&A restructuring, brief descriptions of the new portfolio elements and how they map to the old programs, the tentative due dates, and previous presentations and questions are available at:
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/PSD-RandA/
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HOW HAVE THE SEQUESTER CUTS AFFECTED YOU?
The AAS Executive Office wants to hear how the indiscriminate, across-the-board budget cuts known as the sequester have affected our members. Please use our online form to report your experience.
http://aas.org/posts/news/2013/11/how-have-sequester-cuts-affected-you
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RESULTS OF CFHT’S ANNOUNCEMENT OF OPPORTUNITY FOR NEW INSTRUMENTATION AND UPGRADES
CFHT is pleased to announce the outcome of the recent Announcement of Opportunity (AO) to develop new capabilities for our community on this web site: http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/en/news/AO_Announcement/AO_index.php
This combination of instrument development activity will provide exciting near and long-term research opportunities for CFHT’s community and anticipates significant amounts of time being allocated for surveys in the future. The nature and scale of these surveys will be formulated in advance of the arrival of new capabilities, will rely upon community consultation, and will incorporate a careful assessment of the long-term future of CFHT in the context of other facilities worldwide.
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REMINDER : 2014 ONLINE MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS
You should have paid your 2014 membership dues online at https://members.aas.org/ by 31 December 2013. Please take the time to renew by logging in to your membership record (today !) and in any case before the membership lists are updated within a month or two from the beginning of 2014. By renewing online and not receiving a paper renewal, you will help your Society save enormous costs.
Also, please take a moment to update your personal DPS member file.
Thank you for your attention.
Send general replies to [email protected].
Also note that if you renew your AAS membership by 31 December 2013 you can take advantage of a new two-year renewal option, locking in the 2014 rate for 2015 as well. For each year, you’ll also receive a 15% discount off your share of the author charges for a paper in any of the AAS journals.
http://aas.org/posts/news/2013/11/reminder-renew-now-big-savings
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JOBS/POSITIONS OPPORTUNITIES
For all Job opportunities, please visit jobs
and also consider posting a job by filling out the jobs submission form at:
node/add/job
You can send any comments, questions, or suggestions to the DPS Jobs Czar at: [email protected]
A) ASSISTANT PROFESSOR – THEORETICAL ASTROPHYSICS PROGRAM – UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
The University of Arizona’s Theoretical Astrophysics Program (http://tap.arizona.edu/) invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position to begin in Fall 2014. The Theoretical Astrophysics Program is an interdisciplinary program that fosters academic and scientific links among the Departments of Astronomy, Physics and Planetary Sciences at the University, to complement with a strong theory program the world-renowned astronomical facilities in Tucson, AZ. The Program consists of five core faculty and about 25 affiliate members working in a range of topics spanning solar system astrophysics to cosmology. In addition to the typical facilities available at a research university, the UA’s Research Data Center provides our faculty access to local high-end supercomputing resources including distributed, shared-memory and GPU architectures. Review of applications will begin in December 2013 and will continue until the position is filled. For full position details and to apply online, please see www.hr.arizona.edu and reference job #53843. The University of Arizona is an EEO/AA employer – M/W/D/V.
Transmitted by :
Renu Malhotra
Professor, Planetary Sciences
Chair, Theoretical Astrophysics Program
The University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona 85721
(520) 626-5899
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~renu/
B) SCIENTIFIC STAFF POSITIONS IN THE PLANETARY RADAR ASTRONOMY DEPARTMENT AT USRA
USRA is seeking one or more scientific staff positions in the
Planetary Radar Astronomy department studying near-Earth asteroids and
other bodies with the Arecibo Observatory Planetary Radar system.
This position would involve observations, data processing, archiving,
and modeling of near-Earth asteroids and other bodies with the
Arecibo Planetary radar system. Experience with radar observations and
techniques is *not* a prerequisite. Experience and interest in
astronomical observations of Solar System objects, small-bodies
geophysics, and/or numerical inverse modeling are desirable.
Applications can be accepted at the technical staff (M.S. or
equivalent experience), post-doc (Ph.D.), or research scientist
(Ph.D + relevant experience) levels.
The incumbent would be resident in Arecibo, Puerto Rico and be an
employee of Universities Space Research Association. Ph.D. level
researchers (post-doc or research scientist) would be expected to
maintain an independent research program and encouraged to apply for
partial funding support.
For technical information, please contact Mike Nolan <[email protected]>.
USRA is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
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UPCOMING MEETINGS
A) ORIGINS 2014
July 6 (Sun) −July 11 (Fri), 2014
Nara, Japan, http://www.shinkokaido.jp/en/
The 2nd joint international conference of ISSOL (The International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life + the International Astrobiology Society) and Bioastronomy (Commission 51 of the International Astronomical Union)
Abstract Submission is now open!
http://www.origin-life.gr.jp/origins2014/general.html
Important dates
October 1, 2013: Registration open
November 20, 2013: Abstraction submission open
January 10, 2014: Hotel & excursion reservation open
January 31, 2014: Deadline for Early registration
February 21, 2014: Deadline for Abstract submission
March 31, 2014: Second circular
June 30, 2014: Deadline for Late registration
July 6-11, 2014: Origins 2014 conference (onsite registration will be available)
Registration
Please go to the website (http://www.origin-life.gr.jp/origins2014/), click the tab “Registration”, and enter the Registration system (https://amarys-jtb.jp/origins201407).
B) EGU 2014
27 April – 02 May 2014
Vienna, Austria
Several planetary sciences are organized again for next year, you can find them at :
http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2014/sessionprogramme
PS1 – Solar System exploration and techniques
PS2 – Terrestrial Planets
PS3 – Outer planets
PS4 – Small bodies and dust
PS5 – Atmospheric electricity, Plasmas and magnetospheres
PS6 – Exoplanets
PS7 – Modelling and experimental work in Planetology
PS8 – Origins and Astrobiology
PS9 – Joint and Co-Listed Sessions
Abstract Deadline: 16 January 2014, 13:00 CET.
Financial support during EGU 2014:
See: http://www.egu2014.eu/support_and_distinction.html
Please note that a limited amount of the overall budget of the conference is reserved to assist young scientists in attending the conference. Financial support includes a registration fee waiver and a refund of the Abstract Processing Charge (APC) related to the abstract for which support was requested. Additionally, financial assistance towards travel expenditures may be provided at the discretion of the support selection committee to a maximum of €300.
Furthermore, a very limited amount of the overall budget of the conference is reserved for assisting established scientists from low and lower middle income countries.
• Please note, that the Abstract Processing Charge (APC) is also applied in case of support applications.
• Each support award is granted to the contact author for a particular abstract. Should this abstract be withdrawn before the conference or should this abstract not be presented at the conference although the author who has been awarded is present at the conference, the award has to be returned, and the registration fee will be charged to the author’s account.
• Awards are non-transferable!
• Only the granted amount mentioned in the financial support email will be paid out to the supported contact author personally during the EGU General Assembly 2014.
Currently, the European Geosciences Union runs two different financial support schemes:
Young Scientist’s Travel Award (YSTA): this award includes a free registration together with a refund of the Abstract Processing Charge (APC) related to the abstract for which support was requested. Depending on the decision of the Support Committee, additional financial support for the travel expenditures with a maximum of €300 could be granted as well.
Only the granted amount mentioned in the financial support email will be paid out to the supported contact author personally during the EGU General Assembly 2014.
Established Scientist’s Travel Award (ESTA): this award includes a free registration together with a refund of the Abstract Processing Charge (APC) related to the abstract for which support was requested. Depending on the decision of the Support Committee, additional financial support for the travel expenditures with a maximum of €300 could be granted as well.
Only the granted amount mentioned in the financial support email will be paid out to the supported contact author personally during the EGU General Assembly 2014.
C) THE SEARCH FOR LIFE BEYOND THE SOLAR SYSTEM: EXOPLANETS, BIOSIGNATURES & INSTRUMENTS
Tucson, Arizona,
March 17-21, 2014
Deadline for abstracts : 6 December 2013
Motivated by the rapidly increasing number of known earth-sized planets, the increasing range of extreme conditions in which life on Earth can persist, and the progress toward a technology that will ultimate enable the search for life on exoplanets, the Vatican Observatory and the Steward Observatory announce a major conference entitled Exoplanets, Observations & Biosignatures: The Search for Life Beyond the Solar System.
The goal of the meeting is to help the international astronomical community toward the long-term goal of finding life beyond the solar system by bringing together the communities working on the observations and modeling of extrasolar planets, the development of exoplanet-focused instrumentation, biosignatures suitable for remote sensing, and the extreme life on Earth.
Astrobiology School: The conference will be preceded by an independently-organized three-day school hosted at the University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2. The school will allow graduate students and junior postdocs to learn from the invited/keynote speakers and additional lecturers about the key topics of the conference. This will help them to benefit fully from the multi-disciplinary program and to connect with their peers from other disciplines.
Proceedings: The conference proceedings will be published as a special issue of the International Journal of Astrobiology (Cambridge University Press). Contributions will be available through the NASA ADS system.
Website: http://www.ebi2014.org
Contact: [email protected]
D) GREAT-ESF WORKSHOP “GAIA AND THE UNSEEN : THE BROWN DWARF QUESTION”
24-26 Mars 2014, Torino
This is an update on the GREAT-ESF workshop which will look at all aspects of what the ESA mission Gaia can do for brown dwarf science.
A number of invited overviews have been included in the program and the morning parallel sessions have been allocated. The preliminary schedule is available at the meeting webpage. There is still ample room for submitted talks related to the meeting topic. Registration and abstract submission by December 20th is required to be considered for a contributed talk. Poster contributions will be on display all three days of the meeting.
The proceedings from the meeting will be published as part of the Memorie della Societa’ Astronomica Italiana (SAIt) series. The presentations and contributions will also be published online on the meeting site.
The meeting has no registration fee and there is a small amount of support for the attendance of participants if needed. This can be applied for as part of the registration process by December 20th.
More information on the workshop web site : http://GaiaBDs.oato.inaf.it/ .
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