Hawaii Astrobiology Institute Winter School

Hawaii Astrobiology - Winter School

Applications closed for 2005. Selections have been made, and announcements sent out. .

Water on Earth and in Space - January 10-21, 2005

We are initiating a graduate "Astrobiology Winter School", which will be held in Hawaii in January 2005 and 2007. The theme for the 2005 Winter School is "Water on Earth and in Space". The format will incorporate 4 lecture series in the mornings. During the afternoons students will work in groups, engaging in discussions with the lecturers and working toward writing up the content from the morning sessions. The resulting documents will then be published on the UH NASA Astrobiology Institute website as the proceedings of the winter school.

Water Ice and Chemistry in Circumstellar Disks and the Interstellar Medium
Geochemical Processes and Microbiosphers in Hydrothermal Systems
Glaciers on Earth, Mars, and Europa
Icy Bodies in the Solar System and the Origin of the Earth's Oceans

Location

The first UH NAI astrobiology winter school will for the first week be held in Honolulu (Jan 10 - 14), travelling to the big island 1/15 with a tour of the Volcanos National Park on 1/15, and with a field trip to Mauna Kea on Sunday 1/16. The second week (Jan 17 - 21) will be held in Hilo on the big island of Hawaii. On January 16 and 17 there will be the opportunity to participate in real-time remote observing from a control room in Hilo using the UH 2.2m telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea.

Instructors

There will be four primary instructors for the winter school, in addition to an assortment of invited speakers.

Cecilia Ceccarelli Astronomer
Water ice and circumstellar disk chemistry

Ph.D.

B.A.

Jim Cowen Oceanographer
Geomicrobiology, subseafloor biosphere

Ph.D. 1983 Univ of CA, Santa Cruz (Biology-oceanography)

M.A. 1976 UCSB (Biology)

B.A. 1973 Univ of CA, Santa Barbara (Environ. Biology)

Karen Meech Astronomer
Comets and their relation to the early solar system

Ph.D. 1987 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (planetary science)

B.A. 1981 Rice University (space physics)

Thorsteinn Thorsteinsson Glaciologist
Ice cores and climate and volcanic history

Ph.D. 1996 University of Bremen/Alfred Wegener Inst. for Polar Research

M.S. 1990 University of Copenhagen, Denmark (glaciology)

B.Sc. 1986 University of Iceland (geophys)

Invited Speakers

Organizing Committee

Dave Karl (Univ. HI), Klaus Keil (Univ. HI), Karen Meech (co-chair; Univ. HI), Michael Meyer (Univ. AZ), Bo Reipurth (co-chair; Univ. HI)

Course Credit

Our winter school will have 30 hours of instruction (lecture), and 30 hours of instructor lead discussion / writing. We are working with the Outreach College to set this up as a credit course, Astronomy 698, which will receive graduate level credits through the University of Hawaii. Students from other universities will need to get approval from their institutions for this graduate credit to count toward degree fulfillment. We will provide information to our participants about the process at the time of selection.

Eligibility

We invite participation from both US and international graduate students interested in Astrobiology. Postdocs may also apply, with the understanding that preference will be given to graduate students.

Application and Deadlines

The Hawaii Astrobiology Winter School is open to all graduate students, including students outside the United States. International students should note, however, that unless they already have a visa to visit the United States, the present long visa processing times are not likely to allow getting a visa in time. Also, for financial reasons, we are not able to offer international students a larger travel stipend than American students. Preference will be given to students who have demonstrated previous interests or activities in astrobiology or related fields. Applications should be sent by e-mail to haws05@ifa.hawaii.edu no later than Oct 20, 2004. Decisions will be circulated by Oct 30.
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The following information should be included in your application:

Name and your year of birth
Contact information (email, mail address, telephone, fax)
Current school and expected year of PhD
Area of Study
Write a page about your previous contact with astrobiology or related fields, and what you hope to achieve by taking part in this Winter School.

Graduate participants will receive an airfare allowance up to $1000 for the lowest roundtrip airfare from their home to Hawaii in addition to their expenses at the workshop.

Program Details

Last modified: December 28, 2004
Karen Meech Institute for Astronomy 2680 Woodlawn Drive Honolulu, HI 96822 808-956-6828 voice, 808-956-9580 fax meech@ifa.hawaii.edu
Bo Reipurth Insitute for Astronomy University of Hawaii 640 N. Aohoku Place Hilo HI 96740 808-932-2314 reipurth@ifa.hawaii.edu