This is the second announcement of the 19th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation (GR19) that will take place in Mexico City on July 5-9, 2010. The web page is already available at: http://www.gr19.com
Registration and abstract submission are already open. By March 15, 2010 the number of registered participants was 217 and we had received 68 abstracts. We invite you to register and submit your contributions as soon as possible.

We would like to remind you that the LOC is aware of security concerns, and is taking several steps to address this issue. The venue of GR19 is located in a touristic and business area in Mexico City. We will provide all the participants with information regarding cities and regions in Mexico that are not recommended for visitors at this time.

ISGRG-MEMBERS
Members of the International Society of General Relativity and Gravitation should consider that reduced registration fee (470 USD, or 420 USD before May 15) will be available only up to June 11, 2010. After this date the late registration fee (550 USD) will be applied.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT
Limited funds may be available to provide partial support to those who otherwise would be unable to attend GR19. Participants who can demonstrate that they require support to attend the conference should apply via e-mail to the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) at: gr19mexico[AT]nucleares.unam.mx. Partial financial aid is available in the form of reduction of registration fees, travel expenses support, or accommodation support. Applications must be received not later than April 30, and must include a brief CV, recommendation letter from the institution and, for students, copy of a valid student ID and a recommendation letter from the advisor. Applications for financial support must be well justified. Applicants should describe what other sources of funding would be available to them, since any support which can be provided by the LOC will not be sufficient by itself to cover the entire conference costs.

IMPORTANT DATES
April 30 Deadline for abstract submission
May 15 Deadline for early registration
June 11 ISGRG-members’ deadline for reduced-fee registration
July 4 Arrival of participants and registration
July 5-9 Scientific and social program of GR19

We will be honored to welcome you as guests in this great country of ours.

Sincerely,

Hernando Quevedo
On behalf of the LOC

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I wanted to let you know that, in addition to the previously-announced plenary program, a part of the parallel session program for GR19 (July 5-9, 2010, in Mexico City) is now in place. Don’t worry if you have not yet submitted your own abstract (or if you have, but it has not yet been accepted). The deadline for abstract submission is April 30, and there is plenty of space left for additional talks. Many more abstracts will be accepted once the deadline has passed. The names below are just a teaser to show you how exciting the program will be!

Looking forward to seeing you in Mexico City,

Don Marolf
SOC Chair for GR19

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Plenary program:

Tom Abel
Star Formation Then and Now

Patrick Brady
Global network of gravitational-wave detectors: observations and implications

Mihalis Dafermos
Recent progress in mathematical relativity

Andrea Ghez
Observing the Supermassive Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy

Stefan Hollands
Black hole uniqueness in diverse settings

Gary Horowitz
Surprising connections btwn gravity and condensed matter physics

Veronika Hubeny
(AdS) Black hole physics as fluid dynamics

David McClelland
Quantum technologies for gravitational wave detectors

Jeffrey McClintock
Black hole spins: observations, expectations, and implications

Slava Mukhanov
Verifying Inflation and Probing Dark Energy

Frans Pretorius
Advances in numerical relativity

Carlo Rovelli
Progress in loop gravity and spin foams

Tarun Souradeep
Standard Cosmology & Beyond with CMB

Ingrid Stairs
Testing GR with binary pulsars

Rainer Weiss
Current performance and near term prospects for ground based interferometric gravitational wave detectors

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Partial Parallel program:
(each session will accept many more talks in May (after the April 30 abstract submission deadline)

A1 Exact Solutions and their Interpretation
Chair: Harvey Reall

Partial List of speakers:
Piotr Chrusciel
Valeri Frolov
Jiri Bicak
Carlos Herdeiro
James Lucietti
Vojtech Pravda
Juan Valiente-Kroon

A2 Mathematical Relativity and Other Progress in Classical Gravity Theory
Chair: Sergio Dain

Partial List of speakers:
Robert Wald
Helmut Friedrich
Piotr T. Chrus’ciel
Jim Isenberg

A3 Modified Gravity Theories
Chair: Cedric Deffayet

Partial List of speakers:
Petr Horava
Rachael Bean

B1 Relativistic Astrophysics
Chair: Tvsi Piran

Partial List of speakers:
Pawan Kumer
William Lee
Elena Gallo
Elena Rossi.

B2 Numerical Relativity and Astrophysical Applications
Chair: Manuela Campanelli

Partial List of speakers:
Miguel Alcubierre
Harald Pfeiffer
Pablo Laguna
Christian Ott

B3 Analytic Approximations and Perturbation Methods and their Applications
Chair: Alessandra Buonanno

Partial List of speakers:
Luc Blanchet
Leor Barack
Ajith Parameswaran
Vitor Cardoso

B4 Physical Cosmology and Gravitational Lensing
Chair: Buvnesh Jain

B5 Theoretical/Mathematical Cosmology
Chair: Robert Brandenberger

C1 Current ground-based GW detectors: Experiments
Chair: Seiji Kawamura

Partial List of speakers:
Andrzej Krolak (IMPAN) Virgo
Valery Frolov (LIGO Livingston Observatory) LIGO
Jim Hough (Glasgow) GEO
Shinji Miyoki (ICRR) CLIO/TAMA

C2 Ground-based GW detectors: Data analysis and techniques
Chair: Marie Anne Bizouard

C3 Advanced ground-based GW detectors (R&D for and science from)
Chair: Nergis Mavalvala

C4 Space-based GW detectors: Theory and experiment
Chair: Stefano Vitale

Partial List of speakers:
Oliver Jennrich
Stanislav Babak
Jonathan Gair
Tomotada Akutsu
Ilya Mandel
Guido Mueller
Peter Wass

C5 Experimental gravitation
Chair: Eric Adelberger

Partial List of speakers:
Stephan Schlamminger
Stefan Baessler

D1 Loop Quantum Gravity and Spin Foams
Chair: Alejandro Corichi

Partial List of speakers:
Abhay Ashtekar
Bianca Dittrich
Laurent Freidel
Parampeet Singh

D2 Strings, branes and M-theory
Chair: Shiraz Minwalla

Partial List of speakers:
Petr Horava
Xi Yin
Wei Song

D3 Causal sets, Causal dynamical triangulations, Non-commutative geometry, and other approaches to quantum gravity
Chair: Fay Dowker

Partial List of speakers:
Renate Loll
David Rideout
Steve Carlip
Daniel Litim

D4 Quantum fields in curved space-time, semiclassical gravity, quantum gravity phenomenology, and analog models
Chair: Bill Unruh

The 19th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation (GR19) will take place at Mexico City on July 5-9, 2010. The location of GR19 will be at the Centro Banamex Convention and Exhibition Center (Centro Banamex) which is the most modern location of its type in Mexico. A professional congress organizer (Anfitriones Nacionales) will be in charge of the complete registration, accommodation, transportation, equipment, and logistics of the event.

The Local Organizing Committee is aware of security concerns and has taken several steps to address this issue. First, Centro Banamex is located in the Reforma corridor, a touristic and business area in Mexico City. Second, all the hotels proposed to the participants of GR19 are in close proximity to the venue. Finally, the conference will arrange special bus transportation between hotels and Centro Banamex which will be offered free of charge during the entire conference.

GR19 will include five days of conference talks, a public lecture to be presented by Prof. George Smoot, and an optional half-day excursion. The Scientific Organizing Committee, chaired by Prof. Don Marolf, is organizing a very exciting scientific program with a broad array of plenary speakers and parallel sessions. This information is available on the GR19 website at http://www.gr19.com/ . Abstract submission for the parallel sessions will begin on December 1, 2009. To solidify an initial program, a small number of abstracts will be accepted in January, 2010. Other acceptances will occur after the admissions process has closed.

About Mexico
Mexico receives more than twenty million international visitors every year, in part due to its ancient culture, the warm and friendly atmosphere of the Mexican people, its renowned cuisine, and to its wonderful climate year round. Mexico City, the oldest metropolis in the Americas, is overlooked by the Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl volcanoes and is noted for having gentle weather with an average annual temperature of 22°C. Mexico City is an exciting place in which history, art, culture, tradition and modernity mix to form a constant effervescent ambience. There are neverending opportunities to experience and enjoy the region. There are innumerable tourist services, such as accommodation, fine dining, travel agencies, car rental services, tourist information booths, tourist transportation services and complementary services.

Visa information
Nationals of most countries do not require a visa to enter Mexico for visits of up to 90 days. For more information on visa requirements please visit: http://www.inami.gob.mx/EN/index.php The conference will provide supporting documentation for visa applications upon request during registration online. In the unlikely event of a visa problem, the participants should feel free to contact us at:

Local Organizing Committee
Institute of Nuclear Sciences,
UNAM A.P. 70-543,
04510 Mexico D.F.
MEXICO
Fax: +52 55 56224693
E-mail: gr19mexico_AT_nucleares.unam.mx

Travel information
Mexico City can be reached by diverse means of transportation from all over the world. The city has a world-class international airport, four long-distance bus terminals, and a central railroad station. Visitors can fly to Mexico City from 104 airports around the world. Mexico City’s International Airport (IATA: MEX) offers 650 flights a day and serves 6 national and 41 international airlines. There is also a new airport located in the city of Toluca (IATA: TLC) which is 50 minutes away from Mexico City.

Accommodation
Mexico City has more than 120 tourist-standard hotels with more than 47,000 rooms. Mexico Congress City (MCC) is an alliance headed by Centro Banamex, that involves the seven of the most important hotels in Mexico City in order to offer special benefits to the attendees of conferences at Centro Banamex. All the MCC hotels are within a 7 km radius of the Convention Center and from 15 to 30 minutes away (bus transportation during rush hour). Low-cost hotels will be offered to students at special rates. Additional information will be given soon on the GR19 website where you will be able to make your own reservations.

Conference fees

Early registration – Non-student (500 USD); ISGRG-Member (420 USD); Student (300 USD)
Late registration – Non-student (550 USD); ISGRG-Member (470 USD); Student (350 USD)

The conference fees include a welcome reception, admission to all plenary and parallel sessions, admission to the public lecture, all refreshment breaks, delegate pack and conference information, bus transportation between hotels and Centro Banamex, and participation on a half-day excursion in Mexico City.

Important dates

December 1, 2009: Online registration begins / Abstract submission begins
April 30, 2010: Deadline for abstract submission
May 15, 2010: Deadline for early registration
July 4, 2010: Arrival of participants and registration
July 5-9, 2010: Scientific and social program of GR19

We will be honored to welcome you, your families and friends, and the entire International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation as guests in this great country of ours.