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This year's meeting is devoted to the subject "The Warm Universe - Astrochemistry at Intermediate and Elevated Temperatures". Many different astronomical environments and objects showing higher temperatures (star-forming regions, protoplanetary disks, circumstellar envelopes, cometary comae as well as planetary and satellite atmospheres) exhibit very interesting chemistry. The HERSCHEL space telescope has delivered a lot of new data on many objects falling under this category and future observations with the ALMA millimetre array will explore their fine structure and chemistry. Aim of this event is to update experimentalists and theoreticians about new findings concerning warmer environments in space and, hopefully provide a forum to discuss new research ideas and projects. It will be a joint event with the European Union COST Action "The Chemical Cosmos: Understanding Chemical Processe in Astronomical Environments".
The theme might be a bit more on the astronomic/physical/chemical side, but geologists and biologists do not need to worry. Firstly there are sessions (e.g. "Impacts onto planets and satellites" and "Planetary and exoplanetary ionospheres") and secondly, we have one session with the general theme "Nordic Highlights in Astrobiology".The list of sessions is as follows:
Deadline for registration, accommodation booking and abstract submission: 15 April 2012
Information about the meeting is available on the website of the event.
A summer school with the above-mentioned title will be co-organised from 2-15 July 2012 in Iceland by the Nordic Astrobiology Network and the NASA Astrobiology Institute. The summer school will consist of:
The event is aimed for graduate students and early career scientists in fields related to astrobiology. The event is open to applicants from all nationalities Detailed information about the summer school and the application procedure (deadline 31 January 2012) will appear here very soon. Successful applicants will receive free lodging meals and excursions, but will have to organise financial meanns for their travel to and from Iceland themselves. If you have any questions, please contact Wolf Geppert, Fysikum, Stockholm University, Roslagstullsbacken 21, SE-10691 Stockholm, phone ++46-8-5537 8649, e-mail: wgeppert@fysik.su.se.
For detailed information about the summer school access the website of the event.
The 2nd International Workshop on "Microbial Life under Extreme Energy Limitation" will take place at Aarhus University during May 6-9 2012. We invite the participation of scientists and graduate students to this workshop which will bring together diverse disciplines of biochemistry, physical organic chemistry, microbiology, biogeochemistry, and bioenergetic theory. The goal is to develop our understanding of the energetic limits to microbial life, with relevance for the deep biosphere, planetary biology, and microbial ecology in general. Internationally leading scientists in these disciplines will give invited lectures that will set the stage for following discussions. The workshop format will furthermore allow for presentation of an unlimited number of posters and a smaller number of contributed talks. On the second afternoon and third morning of the workshop participants will discuss the most interesting and important themes in groups. The groups will be asked to summarize the current understanding of the chosen themes and consider future research needed.
We invite you to apply for participation in the workshop by submitting an abstract before March 1, 2012. The workshop is limited to 80 participants. Applicants will be notified of acceptance by March 8 and asked to register before March 22. Priority will be given to participants and abstracts of most relevance to the workshop, taking into account the importance of diversity among disciplines.
Full information on the workshop is available on the following website:
www.microenergy2012.org
The first open meeting of the Nordic Astrobiology Network will take in Turku (Finland) from 18th to 21st September 2011 and will have the theme "Comets, Rocks and Life". The themes are very timely due to the success of the Stardust Next mission, from which, surely, very interesting results will be reported. During this meeting a session is devoted to the further development of research in Astrobiology in the Nordic Countries. Also, the new Nordic Network will be presented to the larger scientific audience. Furthermore, participants will have the possibility to explore the new, world-unique "Time-Trek" walkway the University of Turku has created. Information about programme, organisational details and registration can be found on the website of the conference.
Based on this success, the Nordic Network co-organised a winter school in Hawaii from 3 to 16 January 2011 in co-operation with (and mostly funded by) NAI. Here, the practical part consisted of astronomical observations with focus on icy solar system bodies. The school was again a great success and in the words of the NAI Director students have been "glowing" about the event afterwards. Information about the event can be found here.
The next summer/winter schools are planned for July 2012 (Iceland) and January 2014 (Hawai'i).
The Nordic Countries hosted the Astrobiology Graduate Conference AbGradCon 2010 (Tällberg, Sweden 14-18 June 2010). This was the first time this event was held outside the USA. 48 young and early career scientists from all the fields of astrobiology gave talks at this meeting and it was a great success with 88 persons from 29 different nations participating. More information about the conference is available at its website.
A workshop entitled "Water Delivery on Early Earth" in co-operation with the Swedish Astrobiology Network (SWAN) on 3rd November 2009. Several internationally renowned scientists presented different theories of the origin of Earth's water. The event was attended by about 50 people.
The kick-off meeting of the Network was held at the University of Turku on 25 October 2007. An agenda can be found here.
A satellite meeting for young astrobiologists was organised at the last day of the 7th EANA Workshop in Turku, Finland. Many young Nordic Astrobiologists took part in that event, which had a large audience and 3 of them gave presentations.