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EAS News
A word from the President
Sara Lucatello
It is a great honor and a privilege to take over the role of President of the EAS.
I wish to start this first message to the membership in my new capacity with an acknowledgement of the tremendous contribution that my predecessor, Roger Davies, has made to the Society. Roger guided the EAS for seven years with exceptional leadership and dedication, during which the society has enjoyed an incredible growth both in size and in stature. Individual members have quintupled, and there was a significant increase in the number of organizational members and national affiliated societies, which now expand beyond the limits of the European Union, making the EAS a truly pan-European organization.
The EAS annual meetings have established themselves as the largest yearly astronomy-focused event in Europe, regularly attended by over 1,500 scientists and are particularly popular with early career researchers, whose energy, enthusiasm, and fresh ideas are crucial to the future of our field.
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In these years the society has grown more attentive to societal issues in science, establishing advisory committees on Equity Diversity and Inclusion and on Sustainability. The EAS has also considerably strengthened its interactions with the European Parliament and Commission, organizing impactful events that bridge the gap between policymakers and the astronomical community, and has become a permanent observer at UN Committee on the Peaceful Use of Outer Space, where we are able to contribute to critical international discussions on space sustainability and the protection of the Dark & Quiet Skies.
There is no doubt that thanks to Roger's leadership and the dedicated work by all the Council, the EAS is in excellent shape.
I look forward to serving the Society in the upcoming years and I was particularly pleased to start my presidency at the EAS2024 annual meeting in Padova, which is not only a place of extraordinary astronomical heritage, but also the city where I am fortunate enough to work. The meeting was a huge success, with over 1,800 attendees from more than 60 countries, and it showcased the very best of astronomical research taking place in Europe and beyond, as summarized later in this newsletter. Thanks to the meeting, Padova was the world capital of Astronomy for one week.
Looking ahead, I look forward to our next Annual Meeting, which will be held in Cork, at University College Cork, an academic institution with a long-standing tradition in the study of astronomy. This will be the first time that an EAS, EWASS or JENAM meeting takes place in Ireland, and I am excited that the EAS annual meeting will be hosted by the local astronomical community, which has enjoyed a tremendous growth in recent years.
EAS News
New Councilors starting at the GA 2024 during Padova Annual Meeting
Ignacio Ferreras and Sven Wedemeyer
In the course of the past year two council positions had become vacant. Elections were held in May and Ignacio Ferreras from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias in Tenerife, Spain, and Sven Wedemeyer from the Rosseland Centre for Solar Physics, University of Oslo, Norway have started their four year term in early July. Ferreras will act as liaison with the European Parliament and help as deputy with the Newsletter. Wedemeyer will join the Annual Meetings Board and he will be a liaison to the solar physics community. Nabila Aghanim, EAS Councillor since 2022, will be one of the two Vice-presidents, along with Lex Kaper, who chairs the EAS Annual Meetings Board. Council responsibilities are
revised on a regular basis, for up-to-date. Further information about the roles of all Council members can be found on
EAS webpage.
EAS News
EAS Annual Meeting 1-5 July 2024 in Padova, Italy
Summary
This year we were happy to welcome again a large number of participants to the EAS annual meeting: 1600 participants came to the Padova Congress Centre in person, and an additional 200 attended the meeting remotely. This was the first annual meeting in which all sessions were accessible in full hybrid mode. Roughly half of the online attendants contributed with a talk.
About 50% of those attending in person had student and postdoc status, a most welcome group, as these events strive to help students in meeting new colleagues and establishing future collaborations. The packed programme included nearly 1200 talks and over 800 e-posters, and covered a wide range of subjects. The contributions were divided over 15 Symposia, 41 Special Sessions and 8 Lunch Sessions.
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Furthermore, every day included a plenary session with excellent presentations, including those given by the EAS prize winners. Community reports were delivered by ESA, ESO and SKAO. The attendants were kept abreast of the latest results from ongoing observatories such as JWST, ALMA, or Gaia. Recent results were presented from the newcomer, Euclid, launched last year, and plans for future facilities such as the Extremely Large Telescope, PLATO, Athena or LISA, were also presented during the Annual Meeting. Many people enjoyed the AstroRun through the city, the great concert (Holst's The Planets) and the accompanying movie that toured our Solar System, as well as the conference dinner in the garden of Villa Contarini, made even more pleasant by the musical contribution with two tenor singers. The EAS is grateful to the generous support of the sponsors of the EAS Annual Meeting, in particular to INAF.
EAS News
EAS 2024 Annual meeting attendees; we need your feedback!
Your input will inform our choices in the planning of future annual meetings
Year by year we do our best to improve the quality of the Annual Meetings. Feedback from the attendees is extremely helpful to improve our next gatherings. Therefore, we kindly ask you to take part in the post-attendance survey prepared by the Council. The result of this survey will help us shape future meetings according to the needs of all members, taking into account the aspects of sustainability and inclusion. The link to the survey poll can be found
here.
EAS News
HERA workshop in 2025
Pisa, Italy
The Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Foundation continues its support of astrophysics research and young scientists with the organization and funding of workshops geared towards early career scientists, an initiative proposed by the EAS. The 2025 workshop, organized by Andrea Ferrara, will focus on early galaxy formation, to be held at the SNS (Scuola Normale Superiore) in Pisa, Italy. The workshop will likely take place around the end of September 2025. A preliminary title is "Physics of the Universe at Cosmic Dawn".
Given the extremely positive reactions and interest, we plan to continue the HERA series for 2026-2028, and the EAS is now preparing the application for funding by the Foundation. Astronomical institutions interested in hosting a HERA workshop should please contact eas@unige.ch.
EAS News
EAS 2025 Annual Meeting, University College Cork, Ireland
Call for symposia and sessions
The 2025 EAS Annual Meeting will be held in Cork, Ireland, and will be hosted by University College Cork. The huge campus offers accommodation for lodging a significant fraction of the participants. Paul Callanan and Matt Redman agreed to serve as co-chairs of the Scientific Organizing Committee of the EAS 2025. Please consider the EAS Annual Meeting to organize your scientific meeting, taking advantage of all logistics being arranged by the meeting organizers.
Individuals within the Astronomy and Space Science communities, as well as European networks, are strongly encouraged to propose and organise sessions. Astronomers not associated with any European institution are also welcome to propose sessions, but should plan to involve a European collaborator.
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