Formation and evolution of planetary systems and habitable planets
Molė tai, 21 - 30 August 2015

Course organisers
The summer school will be organised by Prof. Wolf D. Geppert and Prof. Grazina Tautvaisiene, (Vilnius University, Lithuania) and in co-operation with the Vilnius University and the other scientists involved in the Nordic Network of Astrobiology, the European Union COST Action "Origins and Evolution of Life on Earth and in the Universe" and the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership "European Astrobiology Campus".

Lecturers
The following lecturers will give presentations at the summer school (please check the Programme webpage for a preliminary schedule):

Dr. Bertram Bitsch, Lund Univesity, Sweden His main research focuses on computer simulations of accretion disc structures. Inside these discs, small dust particles stick to each other to form pebbles, pebbles concentrate in the turbulent flow to form planetesimals and planetary embryos and grow to planets, which undergo substantial radial migration. All these processes are influenced by the underlying structure of the protoplanetary disc, specifically the profiles of temperature, gas scale height and density. I am therefore interested in all processes that can influence the structure of the disc and how planets can interact with the disc.
Dr. Alexis Brandeker, Stockholm Observatory, Sweden Since March 2007 Alexis Brandeker is affiliated with at Stockholm Observatory. Before that, he spent 2.5 years as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto. I acquired my Ph.D. from Stockholm Observatory in 2003 on the subject "Young stars and circumstellar disks". As an undergraduate, he studied engineering physics at the Royal Institute of Technology, where he got his M.Sc. in 1998. His homepage is found here.
Dr. Kazimieras Černis, Vilnius University, Lithuania Leading researcher at the Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy of Vilnius University. An expert in search and observations of comets and asteroids. Has discovered 26 comets and more than 520 asteroids. An author of more than 470 scientific publications.
Dr. Francesco Fontani, Arcetri Observatory, Italy Francesco Fontani is staff astronomer at the Arcetri Observatory (Florence) since 2011. He got his PhD in astronomy in 2004 at the University of Florence, and before 2011 he's been postdoctoral fellow at the INAF-Istituto di Radioastronomia (Bologna), ESO-ALMA fellow (COFUND Marie Curie) at IRAM (Grenoble), and postdoctoral assistant at the University of Geneva. His scientific interests are mainly focused on the very early stages of the formation process of high-mass (M>8 Msun) stars and stellar clusters, with special attention to: (1) the earliest phases of high-mass protostellar objects; (2) the initial conditions in the massive star and stellar cluster formation process; (3) the study of the Deuterium fractionation in the high-mass star formation process. Since 2013, he is teaching �Physics of the interstellar medium� at the University of Florence.
Dr. Amara Grapa, Latvian University, Latvia A. Graps is a planetary scientist at the Institute of Astronomy (IA), University of Latvia, in Riga, Latvia with a second affiliation at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona. Previously, she was in Boulder, Colorado, USA at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) as a researcher and supporting mission scientist for the NASA New Horizons Pluto mission (Ralph camera). Prior to that, she worked in Italy as a government astronomer at the Institute of Interplanetary Space Physics (INAF-IFSI) in Rome, where she supported the space missions (NASA/Dawn to the asteroids Vesta and Ceres, ESA/Rosetta and NASA/Cassini) that carry INAF's infrared spectrometers, and as an astronomy instructor at the American University of Rome. Amara's interest on how Earth acquired its water began in 2001 at a particularly inspiring EGU seminar by T. Owen and the topic has not diminished her interest in the years since. She was fortunate for a few years in the middle 2000s to be paid to look into the geochemical fingerprints of potentially water-bearing small solar system bodies and has since found the story only more complex and fascinating.
Dr. Uffe Gråe Jørgensen, Copenhagen University, Denmark I started my scientific work with studies of molecular opacities (with e is involved into instrument development of the lucky imaging technique for improved microlensing detection of small exoplanets, is in charge of the operation of the Danish 1.54 m telescope at ESO's La Silla observatory and in charge of the exoplanet research with the SONG telescope network. In 1995, together with colleagues discovered, from the Danish telescope, at that time the most Earth-like exoplanet known. He also is an expert in stellar atmospheres and late stages of stellar evolution, has been working on the meteoritic aspects, with studies of interstellar grains in primitive meteorites.
Dr. Rimvydas Janulis, Vilnius University, Lithuania Senior researcher at the Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy of Vilnius University. He is the responsible astronomer for the telescopes and instrumentation at the Moletai Astronomical Observatory, a co-author of an exoplanet discovery near the subdwarf star V391 Pegasi in 2007 using the 1.65 m telescope of the Moletai Observatory. An expert in asteroseismic observations of stars, worked for several decades in the �Whole Earth Telescope� network.
Prof. Tom Millar, Queen's University, Belfast Tom Millar is Professor of Astrophysics and Dean of Engineering and Physical Sciences at Queen's University Belfast where he heads the Molecular Astrophysics Group. His research is concerned with understanding the physics and chemistry of the interstellar medium and using this to probe fundamental processes such as star birth and star death. Specific interests include: Physics of the interstellar medium including the excitation of molecular hydrogen in protoplanetary disks, including the effects of X-ray and grain growth. Spectral line surveys. Fundamental chemical kinetic data e.g. reaction rate data. Identifying important chemical reactions for study in the laboratory.
Prof. Olivier Mousis, Observatory of Besancon, France Olivier Mousis is a specialized astrophysics researcher in the field of formation of the Solar System and Planetary Systems. He published original works that allowed to interpret the measurements of volatile elements in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn by Galileo and Cassini and to analyze the conditions formation of the planets in the primordial nebula. He also proposed scenarios of Titan and Enceladus formations in the light of observational data from the Cassini-Huygens mission. Recently, it has shown that atmospheric methane on Titan comes from the primitive nebula and is not the product of hydrothermal reactions inside the satellite. Olivier Mousis has developed an extensive network of international collaborations (Cornell, SWRI, JPL, UT, Yale, CDAC, JHU / APL, ...) and works closely with scientists involved in space missions. He received the "Young Lecturer of the Year 2008" awarded by the French Astronomical Society and Astrophysics (SF2A) and was named 2009 Junior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France.
Prof. Hans Olofsson, Onsala Space Observatory, Sweden Hans Olofsson is professor of radio astronomy and director of the Onsala Space Observatory, the Swedish National Facility for Radio Astronomy, at Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg. His main fields of research are the distribution, kinematics, and physical/chemical structure of the star-forming gas on galactic scales, and the final evolution of solar-type stars. Both these aspects of the life cycle of stars have an astrobiological bearing. The former establishes the large-scale boundary conditions for the origin of life. The latter has a direct bearing on any existing life through the evolution of the central star, and, as the star approaches its death, an indirect effect through the production of heavier elements and complex (in an astronomical sense) molecules.
Dr. Erika Pakštiene, Vilnius University, Lithuania Senior researcher at the Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy of Vilnius University. An expert in asteroseismic observations and analysis of stars. She works on analysis of Kepler Space Mission observational results.
Prof. Grazina Tautvaisiene, Vilnius University, Lithuania Deputy director for research, leading researcher, head of Astronomical Observatory at the Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy, Vilnius University. An expert in observational spectroscopy and photometry, published more than 120 scientific papers on stellar and galactic chemical evolution. In 2003 was awarded by the National Science Prize, the highest science prize in Lithuania. She is a national coordinator for the Gaia-ESO Public Spectroscopic Survey and HORIZON 2020 EUROPLANET project, Vice-President of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, Vice-President of the Lithuanian Physics Society, a board member of ASTRONET, the project dedicated to the development of astronomy in Europe, a member of the ASTRONET Working Group on Education, Recruitment and Training, and Public Outreach, has organised 10 international training courses and a number of conferences.
Dr. Wolf Geppert, Stockholm University, Sweden Wolf D. Geppert received his Ph. D. in Physical Chemistry at the University of York in 2000. Since then he has been working in the field of astrochemistry - mostly with experiments to investigate barrier-less reactions of importance for the synthesis of molecules in the interstellar medium and planetary ionospheres. After post-doctoral positions in Bordeaux, Helsinki and Stockholm he was promoted to Full Professor at Stockholm University in 2014. His work mainly concerns studying the formation of complex molecules in space through ion induced processes using experimental, observational and computational methods. Wolf Geppert is Coordinator of the Nordic Astrobiology Network of and Director of the Stockholm University Astrobiology Centre. He is also Vice Chair of the European Union COST Action "Origins and Evolution of Life on Earth and in the Universe" and the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership "European Astrobiology Campus". He also functions as also Handling Editor of the new journal "Molecular Astropysics".

Welcome to Molė tai !