RASNZ 2020 Conference - Wellington 8 - 10 May
The 2020 Conference will be held Friday 8 - Sunday 10 May 2020 in Wellington. The Wellington Astronomical Society is hosting the Conference. The Conference venue is the Wharewaka Function Centre located on the waterfront just 2 minutes walk from Te Papa.
As the programme will commence at the earlier than usual time of 1pm on Friday with a walking tour of historically significant astronomical sites close to Wellington's CBD we encourage as many as possible to make their travel arrangements to arrive in the city during the morning. The Conference will conclude mid-afternoon on Sunday.
A Dark Skies workshop will be held is association with the Conference - the timing of this half-day meeting will be confirmed shortly. The workshop will consist of short talks on relevant key local and international dark sky updates and discussion/demonstration on topics such as sky quality measurements and dark sky friendly lighting.
Invited Speaker: Dr Dom Pesce
We are delighted to report that we will have Dr Dom Pesce as our Invited Speaker. Dom was a member of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, the international partnership that recently captured the first image of a black hole using a virtual Earth-sized telescope. Dom’s research interests include black holes, active galactic nuclei, astrophysical masers, and the application of statistical techniques to astronomical data.
2020 Additional International Speakers
In addition to Dom, the following two international speakers have been confirmed for the Conference:
RAS Bicentenary Lecturer: Professor Chris Lintott. We are grateful to have the Royal Astronomical Society sponsoring Chris's trip to NZ as they mark their bicentenary during the year that we celebrate our centenary. Chris is Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford with a background in the chemistry associated with star formation. He is currently focused on galaxy formation and runs citizen science projects to investigate galaxy formation, discover planets and more. Chris is also presenter of The Sky at Night on BBC Four.
2020 BHT Lecturer: Professor Anna Scaife. The RASNZ Lecture Trust is bringing Anna to NZ as the Beatrice Hill Tinsley Lecturer for 2020 and her BHT Lecture Tour will coincide with the Conference. Anna is Professor of Radio Astronomy at the University of Manchester where she is Head of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics Interferometry Centre of Excellence. Anna is regarded a being a world leader in radio astronomy and leads numerous international projects for the new generation of large radio telescope, such as the Low-Frequency Array and Square Kilometre Array.
Planning for this event is progressing and further details will be announced in the near future once they are confirmed. In the meantime please mark the above dates in your calendar and consider participating in this Conference as RASNZ celebrates its centenary.
