Conferences, Workshops etc.

We are pleased to announce the RadioNet Technical Dissemination Workshop on new trends in Radio Astronomy instrumentation. These two days of coming together, presenting new ideas and discussing future trends will be held on September, 21st and 22nd 2020 at the Max-Planck-Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn (Germany).

This meeting is the last in a series of technical workshops combining several aspects of engineering and operational issues at radio observatories all over Europe and beyond. It provides the unique opportunity to cross border the different communities to see what ‘the others’ are doing and planning and enhance communication between engineers, scientists and operators.

The Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) 12 m submillimeter telescope has significantly contributed to a wide variety of astronomy science areas, ranging from the discoveries of new molecules to large-scale and deep imaging of the submillimeter sky.

Since 2012, every other year, the Ringberg APEX workshops bring together APEX users and other interested scientists working on a wide range of exciting results covering the Solar System to distant galaxies in the early Universe. APEX2020 aims at presenting new science results and to looking into new science opportunities for the next years.

In the last two years, APEX has been significantly improved by upgrades of the antenna itself as well as by the commissioning of new instruments, including new large cameras for wide-field continuum imaging and new heterodyne instruments highly complementary to ALMA.

While ALMA operation is in full swing, APEX is strengthening its role not only as a pathfinder for studying large source samples and probing larger spatial scales to prepare detailed high angular resolution ALMA follow ups, but also as a fast response instrument to complement new results from ALMA. Furthermore, APEX ensures southern hemisphere access for submillimeter projects complementing archival Herschel research as well as new SOFIA science.

The conference venue, Ringberg Castle, provides a unique setting for in depth discussions on current and future science with APEX. In particular, sessions on new scientific results, on synergies with other observatories and on the exploitation of the upcoming new APEX capabilities are envisioned.

The castle can accommodate about 60 to 70 participants. Registration will open Oct 1st at which point scientific contributions can be proposed.

The scope of the workshop is to exchange ideas and solutions among the developers of radio-astronomical instrumentation in the frequency range below 100GHz, specially under the aspect of phased array feed systems.

After single pixel systems and discrete array receivers have been developed to sensitivities close to the physical limits, phased array feed systems are now the next logical step to further increase the science output of the observing facilities. These receiving systems with up to several hundred receiving channels introduce new technological challenges in all areas.

Building on the success of the 2015/17 Ringberg meetings on spectroscopy with SOFIA at which about 70 participants discussed SOFIA results ranging from nearby star formation to the interstellar medium in nearby galaxies, SOFIA2019 aims at presenting new science results and looking into future science opportunities for the next years enabled by new instrumentation.

The workshop will include a session "SOFIA/APEX technological and scientific synergies" to honor the contributions of Rolf Güsten to both projects on the occasion of his retirement.

The BONN neutron star workshops aim to bringing together observers and theoreticians to exchange and discuss new ideas related to neutron star research, in a one-day workshop

The 13th BONN workshop will future a “news” session devoted to highlights from ongoing neutron star research. There will be two additional topical sessions on:
Multi-wavelength/multi-messenger observations of neutron stars: future instrumentation and observing facilities

Now more than 12 years in operation, the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) 12 m submillimeter telescope has significantly contributed to a wide variety of submillimeter astronomy science areas, ranging from the discoveries of new molecules to large and deep imaging of the submillimeter sky.

Since 2012 the Ringberg APEX workshops bring together APEX users working on a wide range of exciting results covering the Solar System to distance galaxies in the early universe. APEX2018 aims at presenting new science results and to looking into new science opportunities for the next years.

The Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy is happy to announce the workshop: "The Big Impact of a Big Dish: Science with the Effelsberg 100-m telescope", which will be held on 20-21 Feb, 2018 at the MPIfR in Bonn.

This meeting is intended to bring together various user groups of the 100-m telescope with the support staff of the observatory and the technical developers.

The Young European Radio Astronomers Conference (YERAC) has been held annually in different radioastronomical centers in Europe since 1968 and has enabled many graduate students and young post-docs doing radio astronomical research to meet and present their current work. For a history of YERAC, see http://www.yerac.org .

YERAC will take place in Bonn for the fifth time. The Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy, MPIfR, has agreed to provide the funding for board and lodging to all participants. Travel costs are expected to be paid by the participants' host institutes.

Participation is by recommendation only. Supervisors/directors of institutes are asked to nominate candidates and provide a supporting letter to yerac@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de . Each participant is expected to deliver a 15 minute talk about their work. The abstracts will be published electronically.

Recent developments have pushed the limits of resolution in astrophysics to new frontiers. Very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) at millimetre wavelengths or using antennas in space yields resolutions down to tens of microarcseconds (that is, fractions of nanoradians). These observations probe compact objects such as the innermost regions of active galactic nuclei. Space VLBI is living a new era at present with the results from the RadioAstron mission, enhancing radio interferometry in terms of resolution at least one order of magnitude with respect to ground-based VLBI. Millimetre VLBI also brings radio interferometry to a new range of resolution and with much enhanced sensitivity due to improvements in data bit rate. With more antennas capable of VLBI at 3-mm wavelength, and successful observations being carried out at 1-mm, a new window is open to universe at unprecedented resolution. This workshop will review recent results on high resolution radio astronomy, including opportunities provided by new antennas becoming available. It will also discuss on the applications of high-resolution imaging techniques and the synergies in the study of compact objects by space and mm-VLBI together. 

Contributions to the workshop will be published online in this webpage; no regular proceedings are planned.

CHANG-ES Workshop, Bonn, July 13-17, 2015

This is the sixth meeting of the DFG Research Unit FOR1254 on magnetic fields in the Universe, which is to review the achievements made during the second funding period, supported by invited review talks given by experts in the field. LOFAR is now routinely operational, while 'older working horses', partly upgraded, are being used to cover the higher frequency ranges (GMRT, JVLA). Significant progress has also been achieved in the Research Unit in terms of MHD modeling of galaxies and galaxy clusters, which alleviate and strengthen the interpretation of the observations and the resulting data products, and in the development of modern tools of data analysis.

This workshop is meant for members of the DFG Research Unit FOR1254. Participation of non-members is possible on request.

Ringberg Workshop on Spectroscopy with the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) , Schloss Ringberg, Germany, March 15-18, 2015

The formation of the Solar System, Bonn, 13-15 May 2014

With more than 900 confirmed exoplanets, it is becoming clear that there are many planetary systems with rather different properties to that of the Solar System. This poses the question how our own Solar System formed. The answer to this question is not straight forward, because it is based on hints from the current state on what happened in the past. It turns out that this is an interdisciplinary endeavour, requiring knowledge of supernovae explosions, meteorites, cosmochemistry, structure and evolution of circumstellar discs, star cluster dynamics, and the early dynamical evolution of planetary systems. The goal of this workshop is to provide a platform for information exchange between these different disciplines, putting together the puzzle pieces of the Solar System formation history.

• Cosmochemical constraints on the physical/chemical conditions in the Solar Nebula
• Time scales of the dust and planetesimal growth for the Solar System
• Models of the Kuiper belt formation
• The role of the stellar environemt, with emphasis on star cluster dynamics 
• Early planetary system development
• Future evolution of the Solar System

Contributions from related fields are welcome.
Registration is open from 1st December 2013. The workshop will be limited to 40 participants, early registration is recommended.

The main theme of this seminar is the observation and theoretical description of systems where gravity is strong and non-linear, in particular systems containing black holes and neutron stars which are ideal gravitational laboratories. To cover the complete complexity of this field of research, experts and graduate students from the observational and theoretical community are invited to bring together their expertise.

• Strong-field gravity in GR and its alternatives
• Black holes as strong field probes
• Neutron stars as strong field probes
• Gravitational wave observations and merger events

The program consists of invited as well as contributed talks and posters. We particularly encourage female scientist to contribute to the seminar. For young scientists we award the best poster with a price.

The number of participants is limited to about 70. All local costs (i.e., meals and accommodation) of the participants will be covered. The registration deadline is December 15th, 2013.

Science with the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX), Schloss Ringberg, 19-22 January 2014

After the success of the 2012 Ringberg meeting on APEX science where about 70 participants discussed exciting APEX science ranging from our Solar system to distant galaxies in the Early Universe, time is ripe to review what has been accomplished since then and to look into science opportunities for the next years.

The castle can accommodate about 60-70 participants. Registration is now open and with the registration participants will also be asked to submit a title and a brief abstract that fits into the meeting objectives.

COST ACTION MP0905 - BLACK HOLES IN A VIOLENT UNIVERSE, Granada, 19-22 November 2013

Joint COST Conference on "The Galactic Center Black Hole Laboratory".

The Modern Radio Universe 2013, Bonn, 22-26 April 2013

Radio Interference with Large Bandwidth Observations, Bonn, 8-12 April 2013

Science with the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX), Schloss Ringberg, 12-15 February 2012