IAU Division G, Stars and Stellar Physics, Quarterly Newsletter

What is this?

As a member of IAU’s Division G I intend to send you a brief e-mail regularly with relevant IAU news. Your comments are welcome.

Nominate an outstanding student for an IAU PhD prize

Two years ago the IAU started a new effort to recognize outstanding PhD theses. Each IAU division can name one recipient of the PhD prize every year. In addition to the recognition, winners receive travel support to attend the next General Assembly. Division G in the past has received many truly excellent applications, making the final decision difficult. IAU members should, however, make sure their PhD students know about this opportunity so they can apply. Watch for an announcement from the IAU.

Join the IAU as a Junior Member

The IAU just this year approved the new membership category of Junior Member. Junior membership is for individuals who are within 6 years of completing their PhDs. Junior membership is temporary and expires after 6 years; a Junior Member is expected to apply for Individual Membership within that time.

Applications will be due December 31st, 2018. Please bring this opportunity to the attention of recent PhDs! More information is at:
https://www.iau.org/news/announcements/detail/ann18047/

IAU news

IAU100 celebrates the union’s centennial. As part of that there will be a day devoted to women and girls in astronomy. Learn more at: https://www.iau-100.org/women-and-girls-in-astronomy-day.

I regret to have to pass on sad news about the passing of two Division G members: Zbigniew Kolaczkowski (deceased 2018-09-22) and John Graham (deceased 2018-09-13). See https://www.iau.org/administration/membership/individual/18209/  and https://www.iau.org/administration/membership/individual/1844/.

News for stellar astronomers

• The astronomical community has accumulated a significant amount of historical records of observations of the Sun, stars and other astronomical objects. Those records contain irreplaceable information about long-term evolutionary and non-evolutionary changes in our Universe, and clearly need to be preserved so that researchers can access and exploit them. As a first step in that process, we are creating an inventory of historical data which members of the astronomical community consider to be worthy of preservation. Most such records are analogue ones (plates, film, paper, books) but can include primitive magnetic tapes (e.g., those lacking recognizable formatting) or other early digital data. We solicit input from the community as to which data exist that you feel merit consideration for preservation, the current state of those data (e.g., digitized or not) or of any associated metadata, and their current location. You can provide your input via this web form: https://goo.gl/forms/lphoIfquXRtvSfrm2. Please share this invitation with colleagues who may be able to contribute to our inventory and who for whatever reason may not receive it through the IAU mailing. For more information, contact Alexei Pevtsov (apevtsov@nso.edu).
• HST will devote 600-1000 orbits of Director's Discretionary time to a Hubble Ultraviolet Legacy Initiative focused on star formation and associated stellar astrophysics. A Working Group has been constituted to engage with the scientific community and make recommendations to the Director on the form of the eventual program. As part of that process, the Working Group is soliciting input from the community via a short survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Z8YPG5X. Please provide responses by December 7, 2018. The UV Legacy Working Group is chaired by Sally Oey (U. Michigan), with members Nate Bastian (Liverpool), Paul Crowther (Sheffield), Andrew Fox (STScI), Jay Gallagher (Wisconsin), Ana Gomez de Castro (Madrid), Claus Leitherer (STScI), Christy Tremonti (Wisconsin). See also https://outerspace.stsci.edu/display/HPR/HST+UltraViolet+Legacy+DD+Initiative+for+Star+Formation+and+related+Stellar+Astrophysics.
• A special issue of Advances in Space Research is being edited by Solen Balman on the subject of novae, cataclysmic variables and related objects. Interested authors may contact him (solen.balman@gmail.com) to submit abstracts for papers or reviews.
• Dr. C. Popescu (CPopescu@uclan.ac.uk), on behalf of the Inter-Division Commission J1 (The spectral energy distributions of galaxies), wants to encourage Division G members to join Commission J1 (by contacting her). More information on J1 can be found at: https://www.iau.org/science/scientific_bodies/commissions/J1/. Please also contact her if you are involved in an IAU symposium proposal that is of relevance.

David Soderblom
U.S. National Committee for the IAU
President, Division G, Stars and Stellar Physics
Chair, IAU Membership Committee

Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore MD USA
drs@stsci.edu