First Guatemalan School of Astrophysics

Searching, Discovering, Characterizing and Modeling Exoplanets

Antigua Guatemala, December 9-14th 2013.

Presentation

The Fisrt GUAtemalan School of Astrophysics (GUASA) focuses on the new branch of astrophysics that studies the planets found in distant stars: Exoplanets. The School will welcome a maximum of 35 undergraduate and young graduate students and will provide a unique opportunity for the participants to broaden their knowledge in this new field of astronomy. The school will cover all the essential aspects such as searching, discovering, characterizing and modeling exoplanets. The school will be 75% in English and 25% in Spanish language.

Scientific Rationale

We will be launching the first ever GUAtemalan School of Astrophysics (GUASA) which will be held in a rural area of Guatemala every two years. The school aims to bring together local Central American/Caribbean undergraduate students of physics/mathematics/engeneering, with experts from prestigious astronomical institutions from around the world. During each of its editions, we expect to cover a wide range of modern topics in Astrophysics in order to motivate students to pursue major degrees in Astronomy elsewhere. We hope that this school will contribute to create a critical mass of professional astronomers/astrophysicists in the region along with the conditions needed for research, thus leading to the creation of strong astrophysics departments in the Universities of the region. In the future, after a few editions of GUASA, we hope to be able to include lecturers from the local academic community.

As a complementary activity of every edition of GUASA, we will also organize outreach activities for the general public, such as public lectures followed by observations using small telescopes. These activities will encourage children and teenagers to get closer to science and to continue their studies aiming for higher education.

Invited Lecturers

Sara Seager, Massachussets Institute of Technology
Martin Still, NASA Ames Research Centre
David Ardila, California Institute of Technology
Mihkel Kama, Leiden Universiteit

Invited Key Speaker

Silvia Torres Peimbert, Instituto de Astronomía UNAM, Elected President IAU.

Organizers

Eduardo Rubio-Herrera, UVG/USAC
Enrique Pazos Ávalos, USAC

Grants for Students and costs

The cost of the event (all/whole week of lectures on Exoplanets) is US$250.00 for non students and US$50.00 for students from an accreditated university.

Those who will be awarded with a grant, will pay no cost. The grant will cover the stay of the student in Antigua and includes some financial aid for transportation (air/bus ticket).

Public activities and the observation will have no cost.

To apply for a grant, please send the following documents to guasa2013@uvg.edu.gt or GUASA@fisica.usac.edu.gt

Pdf version of your transcripts / grades from your University.
A 2 page statement in English, explaining us your motivations to apply and to join the School.

DEADLINE FOR GRANTS OCTOBER 31TH 2013

The statement will be used to evaluate the applicants and it should be written in English.

Last modified: Mon Aug 10 11:38:31 CST 2015