General Assembly in Montreux
The PlanetS General Assembly is the main event during the yearly NCCR cycle and gathers a large majority of NCCR members and associates. It will take place on January 27 – 29, 2020 in Montreux. Registration has to be completed by 15 December 2019.
The General Assembly will take place at the Eurotel Montreux. (Photo Eurotel)
This time the organizers chose Montreux for the PlanetS General Assembly after having been in Anzère, Grindelwald and Beatenberg. The meeting starts on Monday, 27 January 2019 at 11.30 am and closes on Wednesday, 29 January 2019 at noon.
After overviews of what has been achieved so far, there will be two workshops. One is about Dace, the Data and Analysis Center for Exoplanets. “It will be a hands-on session where people can grab data and play with them” explains NCCR Science Officer Yann Alibert, who has set up the program together with NCCR Co-Director Stéphane Udry. The second workshop, proposed by the Academic Platform, is about unconscious bias. The new projects selected in November will also be presented and hopefully there will be some news about CHEOPS. “A few days before the General Assembly the opening of the CHEOPS cover is planned,” says Yann Alibert.
Tuesday afternoon is reserved for presentations and discussions of the three domains. “Everybody can choose where he or she wants to go, but I expect that most people will join their own domain because they want to discuss about their projects,” says the organizer.
After a domain overview on the third day, the advisory board of the NCCR PlanetS will give their comments and advice. The illustrious team of the two Nobel prize winners, Michel Mayor and Brian Schmidt, is complemented by Catherine Cesarsky, former ESO Director General and former President of the IAU.
For one of the evenings a special event is planned: a Nobel banquet which certainly will be the social highlight of the PlanetS General Assembly.
The General Assembly will take place in the Eurotel at the boarder of the lake of the Geneva. “If you leave the seminar room you are directly on the promenade,” says Yann Alibert, “so, I hope it will be sunny.” Because Grindelwald was not available this time and the seminar room in Beatenberg was not optimal, the organizing team had to look for a new venue. “It’s always a pain to find a new hotel,” admits Yann Alibert who hopes that everything will work out in Montreux. The premises seem to be good: “Eurotel takes you higher” is the slogan of the accommodation with its height of 16 floors.
More information can be found on the event page:
http://nccr-planets.ch/event/planets-general-assembly-6/
REGISTRATION is now open and can be submitted via the following form:
http://nccr-planets.ch/general-assembly-2020-registrationform/
Please read the information on the website carefully, especially the part regarding the cost coverage.
Register as soon as possible, by December 15, 2019 at the latest.
Categories: Internal Newsletter, Uncategorized
