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PLEASE CIRCULATE !!!! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Instituto Nacional de Astrofisica Optica y Electronica (INAOE) Instituto de Astronomia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (IA-UNAM) ***************************************** * * * F I R S T A N N O U N C E M E N T * * * ***************************************** A Long Walk Through Astronomy: --------------------------- A celebration of the scientific career and contributions of Professor Luis Carrasco on his 60th Birthday October 15 - 17, 2008, Huatulco, Oaxaca (Mexico) __________________________________________________________________________ ************************************************************************** -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Background and Scientific Rationale ----------------------------------- Luis Carrasco's career began in Mexico City at UNAM in the 60s , and later at the University of California at Berkeley where he obtained his Ph. D. degree. During the early 1970s, he moved to Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) where he was Steve Strom's postdoctoral fellow. This collaboration resulted in a series of trend-setting research papers on the infrared properties of dark clouds. From then onwards he has applied his insights to contribute significantly in a wide range of topics including runaway OB stars, AGN variability, obscured star formation in external galaxies (e.g., M82), metallicity dependence of the optical photometry and its effect on the fundamental plane of galaxies, star formation in cluster environments, astronomical instrumentation etc. Remarkably Luis' contributions in most of these fields explained the relevance of new phenomena or established the observational framework for their interpretation. Luis returned to INAOE in the mid-70s and later moved to the Instituto de Astronomia of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (IA-UNAM) and was head of the Observatorio Astronomico Nacional at San Pedro Martir, B.C. (OAN-SPM). In the early 90s Luis moved back to INAOE where he has established a large research group. Luis is also recognized as one of the architects behind planning of the Large Millimetre Telescope (LMT/GTM), a bi-national project between Mexico and the United States of America (USA). He has been involved actively in the development and construction of the working Near-infrared cameras for the largest telescopes in Mexico. The rationale behind the conference is to honor Luis Carrasco's achievements by reviewing the modern developments in the fields of astrophysics where Luis has strongly contributed with his deep insight and views. Science Topics -------------- * Infrared and optical studies of galactic star-forming regions: Dark clouds, Young Stellar Objects, Variability in Massive stars, Runaway stars, Young Clusters * Dynamics and stellar populations in galaxies: Angular Momentum of disks, Scaling relationships, Star formation in cluster galaxies, Star formation histories of galaxies * M82 - a Local Laboratory for Starburst Phenomenon: Nuclear starbursts, Superstar clusters, Halo emission, ULIRGs * Photometric and Spectroscopic Variability of AGNs: BL Lac object OJ287, SED and bolometric luminosity of galaxies, Variability in the NIR * Astronomical Instrumentation: Present and future spectrographs in the infrared, Future facilities Key speakers ------------ Luis Aguilar (IA-UNAM, Mexico) Alessandro Bressan (OAPD-INAF, Italy) Leonardo Bronfman (*) (DAS, UChile, Chile) Alberto Buzzoni (INAF-OB, Italy) Alain Chelli (*) (Obs. Grenoble, France) George Djorgovski (Caltech, USA) Francesco Ferraro (DA-Univ. Bologna, Italy) Jose Franco (IA-UNAM, Mexico) Giuseppe Gavazzi (UMilano-Bicocca, Italy) Jesus J. Gonzalez (IA-UNAM, Mexico) Mark Heyer (UMass, USA) William Irvine (UMass, USA) Susana Lizano (CRyA-UNAM, Mexico) Matthew Malkan (UCLA, USA) Jorge Melnick (ESO, Germany) Arcadio Poveda (IA-UNAM, Mexico) Laura Silva (INAF-OAT, Italy) Peter Schloerb (UMass, USA) Stephen Strom (NOAO, USA) * - To be confirmed Venue and Pre-registration -------------------------- The meeting will be held in the bays of Huatulco, located at the Coast of Oaxaca during October 15 - 17 when the weather is expected to be pleasant. We invite interested participants to pre-register by filling out the web-form at: http://www.inaoep.mx/~huatulco08 This and additional information (including a preliminary program) will be available at the conference website. The deadline for pre-registration is 30th May. General Organizing Committee ---------------------------- Luis Aguilar, Miguel Chavez, Jose Guichard, Jesus Gonzalez, Omar Lopez, Abraham Luna, Divakara Mayya, Elsa Recillas (Chair), Raul Mujica, Jose Ramon Valdes (Co-chair) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ***************** Contact Address ***************** +----------------------------------------+ | Elsa Recillas | | Astrofisica, INAOE | | Luis Enrique Erro 1 | | Tonantzintla, Puebla 72840, | | MEXICO | +----------------------------------------+ | Phone: (52-222) 266-31-00 | | Fax: (52-222) 247-22-31 | | E-mail: huatulco08@inaoep.mx | | http://www.inaoep.mx/~huatulco08 | +----------------------------------------+ ---------cut here-----------------cut here-------------------cut here--- P R E - R E G I S T R A T I O N F O R M CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS Surname :..................................................................... Name :.................................................................... Institution:............................................................. Address:............................................................. e-mail: fax: I wish to attend the conference and present an: Oral Contribution ..(Y/N).. Poster Contribution ..(Y/N).. No Contribution ...... Title:............................................................. Author(s):......................................................... Affiliations:...................................................... Please fill this form and send to huatulco08@inaoep.mx