MEARIM-II: the 2nd Middle-East and Africa Regional IAU Meeting

12 November 2010

Cape Town Ritz Hotel, South Africa April 10-15, 2011

http://mearim2.saao.ac.za

Building on MEARIM I, the astronomical community of the Middle-East and Africa will meet in Cape Town in 2011 to explore the advancement of the astronomical capabilities in the region. It has been brought to our attention that the first announcement was not received by all, so here follows the details of the conference again. Please note the extended deadlines for both abstract submission and financial support applications.

BACKGROUND

The last decade has seen revolutionary advances in astronomical capabilities within the Middle-East and Africa. In particular, the completion of HESS and SALT, together with the construction of KAT-7 and the bid to host the SKA, has transformed the region, bringing world-class capability in ultra-high energy gamma-rays, optical/near-IR and radio wavelengths to southern Africa. The timing is thus ideal for MEARIM-2, to build on these developments and to exploit them for the benefit of the entire region. The latter requires huge effort on the education and outreach front, which will be a significant topic at the meeting.

The Scientific Organizing Committee is taking shape, and organization plans are advancing rapidly. Details can be found at the conference web site: http://mearim2.saao.ac.za

The conference organizing supporters are the IAU and the South African SKA Project (and we hope to receive support from the SALT Foundation and South Africa's National Research Foundation and Department of Science and Technology). In this official announcement, we are contacting you with information on important deadlines, and inviting you to register, and submit an abstract for one of the science sessions listed below.

SCIENCE SESSION TOPICS

S1: Galaxies and Large-Scale Structure

S2: Space Astronomy & High Energy Astrophysics

S3: Sun, Stellar Interiors & Heliosphere

S4: Virtual Observatory & Data Handling (including the African VO, pipeline processing, archival research)

S5: Optical/NIR Telescopes & Instrumentation (including SALT, robotic facilities)

S6: Astronomy for the Developing World (linked to the IAU plan)

A - Astronomy Research/Cooperation in Space/Education in Africa

B - Training for MEA young astronomers

S7: Radio Telescopes & Instrumentation (including SKA, MeerKAT, HartRAO, C-BASS, PAPER)

S8: Stellar Astrophysics & Galactic Structure:

A - stellar evolution

B - interacting binaries

C - star formation

S9: Planetary Astronomy & Exoplanets

S10: Theoretical Cosmology

S11: Observational Cosmology

FORMAT

Participants would arrive by the Sunday afternoon when there will be a welcome reception that evening at SAAO. It is then planned to cover the sessions listed above over the following 5 days, with the mid-week (Wednesday) afternoon free for excursions and other activities. In order to maximise interactions between different fields, there will be morning plenary (including invited) talks and the remainder in parallel sessions, with the detailed scheduling amongst the session topics to be decided based on the abstracts submitted.

REGISTRATION FEE

The deadline for early registration is February 22, 2011. The early-registration fee is equal to R2500 (R3000 for later registrations). This fee will cover the conference room, all coffee breaks, lunches, the reception on the evening of April 10, and the proceedings.

If you need to cancel your registration, the LOC must be notified by 15 March 2011 for a refund of registration costs (less a R200.00 processing fee).

FINANCIAL SUPPORT

Limited financial support is available, preferentially to support students and those presenting an oral or poster paper. A completed application, which is part of the registration form, must be received by 15 December 2010.

IMPORTANT DATES/DEADLINES:

17 September 2010 Registration opens

15 December 2010 Abstract submission & financial support application deadline

31 December 2010 Deadline for hotel bookings at conference rate

22 February 2011 Early bird registration closes

22 March 2011 Registration closes (earlier if meeting is oversubscribed)

CONFERENCE HOTEL AND ACCOMMODATION

The conference will take place at the Cape Town Ritz Hotel, located in Sea Point, Cape Town, very close to the promenade, and with access to the V&A Waterfront area. Full details can be found at http://www.africanskyhotels.com/hotels/cape-town-ritz-hotel

A set of rooms has been reserved at the hotel for conference participants at very favourable rates, which will be available until the end of this year (or until fully booked!).

Rooms can be secured at this special rate by using reservation code "SAAO":

. R650.00 per single room per night (incl. breakfast & taxes)

. R750.00 per double room per night (incl. breakfast & taxes)

You have to book your room directly with the hotel by contacting Micky Rudolph by email at ritz@africanskyhotel.com or by phone on +27 (0)21 439 1162.

Sharing Rooms

We have also set up a system on the registration page through which participants interested in finding room-mates can pair up.

More accommodation options can be found on the Cape Town Tourism website at http://www.capetown.travel/accommodation/

SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

This is still being constructed, but will essentially bring together the organisers of the parallel science sessions. Those committed so far, together with their relevant sessions (and session panel members) are:

Phil Charles (chair)

Erwin de Blok S1 (Renee Kraan-Korteweg, Hartmut Winkler, David Block)

Piet Meintjies S2 (Okkie de Jager, Ramotholo Sefako)

Thebe Medupe S3 (Chris Engelbrecht, Stefan Ferreira)

Sudhanshu Barway S4 (Steve Crawford)

David Buckley S5 (Darragh O'Donoghue)

Kevin Govender S6A (Carolina Odman)

Peter Dunsby S6B (Patricia Whitelock)

Justin Jonas S7 (Roy Booth, Anja Schroeder)

Patricia Whitelock S8A (Mike Feast)

Patrick Woudt S8B (Brian Warner, Phil Charles, Steve Potter)

Amanda Gulbis S9 (John Menzies)

Chris Clarkson S10 (Peter Dunsby)

Kavi Moodley S11 (Bruce Bassett)

Ahmed Hady MEARIM-1 co-ordinator

and we are hoping for involvement in all the session panels from astronomers throughout the MEA region, as well as from the IAU itself. We welcome further volunteers to join the session panels.

Please contact relevant SOC members above with suggestions/proposals regarding potential plenary topics/speakers and content for the parallel sessions.

LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Please contact the LOC at info@mearim2.saao.ac.za , if you have any queries.

Phil Charles

Shireen Davis (chair)

Simon Fishley

Thembela Mantungwa

Nazli Mohamed

Glenda Snowball

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