Contact: sopuerta[AT]ieec.uab.esLocation: Sant Cugat, Barcelona, Spain
We are pleased to inform you about the progress in the organization of the 2014 edition of the Sant Cugat Forum on Astrophysics, devoted to Gravitational Wave Astrophysics. This Workshop will be the third meeting this biennial series and will be held in Sant Cugat (near Barcelona), from April 22nd to April 25th, 2014. The address of the website of the workshop is
http://www.ice.csic.es/research/forum/2014.html
The motivation for this meeting is the incremental progress made in different major efforts to use gravitational waves (GWs) for Astronomy: The new generation of advanced ground-based GW observatories (LIGO, VIRGO, KAGRA) is going to come online soon, and is expected to provide the first detections; on the other hand, we are entering a crucial moment for the European-led project eLISA for a space-based detector; in addition, pulsar timing arrays are approaching detection sensitivities. Then, it is an excellent moment to bring together experts on the different aspects of Astrophysics related to GW detection, from the mechanisms for source formation (including event rate estimations) to the impact that the observations may have on the different branches of Astrophysics, including the role of data analysis developments and source modelling techniques.
The workshop will consists in a series of plenary talks plus contributed talks, with no more than hundred participants.
INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Nils Andersson (University of Southampton, UK)
Pierre Binetruy (APC-Paris, France)
Monica Colpi (University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy)
Enrique Garcia-Berro (Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain)
Philippe Jetzer (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
Kostas Kokkotas (University of Tuebingen, Germany)
Pablo Laguna (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
Alicia M. Sintes (Universitat de les Illes Balears, Spain)
Carlos F. Sopuerta (IEEC-CSIC, Spain)
Alberto Vecchio (University of Birmingham, UK)
PLENARY SPEAKERS
Pau Amaro-Seoane (Albert Einstein Institute, Germany)
John Antoniadis (Max-Planck-Institute for Radioastronomy, Germany)
Tamara Bogdanovic (Georgia Tech, USA) [*]
Laura Cadonati (University of Massachusetts, USA)
Chiara Caprini (APC Paris, France)
Pablo Cerdá Durán (University of Valencia, Spain)
Thomas Dent (Albert Einstein Institute, Germany) [*]
Zachariah B. Etienne (West Virginia University, USA)
Jonathan Gair (Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, UK)
Bruno Giacomazzo (University of Trento, Italy)
Brynmor Haskell (University of Melbourne, Australia)
Alessandro Nagar (IHES, France)
Carlos Palenzuela (CITA, Canada)
Edward Porter (APC Paris, France)
Christian Reisswig (Caltech, USA)
Alberto Sesana (Albert Einstein Institute, Germany)
Deirdre Shoemaker (Georgia Tech, USA)
Ulrich Sperhake (DAMTP, University of Cambridge, UK)
[*] To be confirmed
LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Carlos F. Sopuerta (IEEC-CSIC, chair)
Daniel Santos (IEEC-CSIC)
Ivan LLoro (IEEC-CSIC)
Anna Bertolín (IEEC-CSIC)
Pilar Montes (IEEC-CSIC)
Diego F. Torres (ICREA & IEEC-CSIC, Sant Cugat Forum)
REGISTRATION
The web registration for the 2014 Session of the Sant Cugat Forum on “Gravitational Wave Astrophysics” is open at the conference website
http://www.ice.csic.es/research/forum/2014Registration.html
Registration fees: 300 Euros up to February 28th, 2014 (350 Euros at the Registration Desk)
The registration fee will cover: Access to the workshop & workshop materials, a copy of the Session Book (to be sent directly to the delegate’ address), welcome cocktail, workshop dinner, and coffee breaks.
CONTRIBUTIONS
Participants who would like to contribute a talk in the parallel sessions can apply by submitting a title and abstract in the registration website. The deadline for abstract submission is February 28, 2014. Participants will be informed shortly afterwards whether their contribution has been accepted.
http://www.ice.csic.es/research/forum/2014AbstractSubmission.html
AWARD FOR YOUNG SCIENTIST
Sant Cugat Forum Award for Young Scientists: From all contributed works by graduate scientists or postdoctoral fellows within 2 years of their PhD that are willing to apply for the award, the Scientific Organizing Committee will choose the Best Work by a Young Scientist. There will be a symbolic cash amount (TBD), an Award certificate, and a token of recognition related to Sant Cugat (typically a local artist painting). If you would like to be considered for the Award, there will be a place to note so in your abstract submission. The deadline for paper submissions for the Young Scientist Award is March 24, 2014. See the guidelines here:
http://www.ice.csic.es/research/forum/Award/Entries/2022/3/28_Guidelines.html
OUTREACH
During the workshop there will be an outreach talk for the general public given by Prof. Alicia M. Sintes.
In the years in between workshops there is at least one relatively important outreach event. This year there is an itinerant exhibition on the evolution of the Universe, and all the 22 Sant Cugat schools will visit it.
PROCEEDINGS IN SPRINGER
As an outcome of the workshop, an edited book will be published in the Springer-Verlag’s Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings series, as a hardcover; following on the tradition of the Sant Cugat Forum on Astrophysics series. The aim is to have a state-of-the-art summary of the workshop topic, i.e. Gravitational Wave Astrophysics.
More details can be found at:
http://www.ice.csic.es/research/forum/2014Book.html
VENUE
The workshop will take place in the village of Sant Cugat, a small, vibrant city located a few kilometers away from Barcelona, across the mountain and the Collserola Natural Park. It can be easily reached from the city center of Barcelona, but the existence of the natural park in between has allowed it to maintain a completely independent character.
The venue will be the Casa de Cultura (Culture House). In front of it there is one of the best-conserved Benedictine Monasteries in Europe, known to exist since 878, which is inside the village’s nucleus with 60% of the streets begin pedestrian ones.
ACCOMMODATION
There is a 4 star hotel with affordable prices 300 meters from the meeting room (there are several other hotels nearby). There is also the possibility to be accommodated in Barcelona downtown since there are trains every 5-10 minutes going to and from Plaza Catalunya (at the very center of Barcelona) that take 25 minutes. For more details:
http://www.ice.csic.es/research/forum/Logistics/Entries/2012/8/29_Lodging.html
OTHER LOGISTICS
Information about how to arrive, local restaurants, and maps is described here:
http://www.ice.csic.es/research/forum/Logistics/Logistics.html
We look forward to seeing you in Sant Cugat.
Best regards,
Carlos F. Sopuerta on behalf of the Local Organizing Committee
Institute of Space Sciences (IEEC-CSIC)