Final Announcement: AGN across continents and cosmic time

This is the final call for registration of interest to participate in the conference AGN across continents and cosmic time, hosted at Durham and Newcastle University. The conference is limited to 80 people and you must register your interest by 30 Nov to be considered for participation. Visit: www.agnacrosscontinents.org

This scientific workshop will explore current understanding of AGN populations, with a particular focus on current and future observational surveys. The primary scientific questions to be addressed are:

  1. How can we establish a complete census of black hole growth across cosmic time (including the highest redshift AGN) and what does this tell us about how and when supermassive black holes form and grow?
  2. What can multi-wavelength surveys tell us about different physical components of AGN and what implications does this have for a standard/unified model or evolutionary model of AGN?
  3. What are the properties of the host galaxies of different AGN populations and what does this tell us about how galaxies and AGN influence each other? 
  4. What are the different data, observational techniques, and analysis methods we need to accelerate progress in answering these questions over the coming decade?

The scope of this workshop covers observational and theoretical work across the full wavelength range that tackle these scientific questions. We anticipate a strong showcase of work that is of strong interest to both the European and African communities. For example, results from SKA pathfinder telescopes such as LOFAR, e-MERLIN, JVLA, and MeerKAT, in addition to telescopes such SALT in South Africa and H.E.S.S. in Namibia. Whilst the focus is on European-African collaboration, scientists from everywhere are welcome to participate.

Confirmed invited speakers: Marie Korsaga; Anna Scaife; Ryan Hickox; Sthabile Kolwa

The workshop will be limited to around 80 participants. Presentation selection will be based on the quality of abstract submissions for talks or posters, and/or their alignment to the focus of the meeting. We will also consider demographics to ensure participation from a wide range of applicants. 

Application Form (participation, abstract submission and for financial support):
You MUST fill out this form to be considered for attendance.
https://www.agnacrosscontinents.org/attendance-application-form 

Deadline: 30th November 2023 
Workshop Dates: 8th – 12th July 2024 
Location: Durham University & Newcastle University (United Kingdom)
Website: www.agnacrosscontinents.org 

Costs and Financial Support

The anticipated conference fee is around £300 (details to be confirmed later). We have a substantial (but finite) budget to support scientists coming to the workshop, with a priority to those from Africa and those who do not have their own funds. This could cover, up to and including all travel and accommodation costs, plus registration fee waiver. Preference for financial support will be given to those most in need, and to early career researchers. Applicants should indicate in their form, the level of financial support they would require to attend the workshop (e.g., travel, accommodation, fee waiver, complete costs, etc.). 

Applications (deadline 30th November)

The mandatory form is to be completed by anybody interested in attending the workshop AGN Across Continents in Durham in July 2024 (even if not submitting an abstract). This form will be used by the Scientific Organising Committee to select participants. It will also be used as an application for any requests for financial support to attend the workshop (details below). Applications for financial support are required at this stage, to ensure we can distribute the limited funds in the most effective and fair way. For more practical information, including options for financial support and key dates, please visit the website: www.agnacrosscontinents.org.

Lecturer/Senior Lecture Position in Astrophysics

As part of a strategy to rapidly expand our Physics programme, the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics (MSP) is looking to appoint an Astrophysicist. The post is required to commence September 2023 at the latest. Deadline 20th September 2022.

Application information and form: https://jobs.ncl.ac.uk/job/Newcastle-LecturerSenior-Lecturer-in-Astrophysics/819865601/

We are looking for an enthusiastic academic with expertise in any area of observational or theoretical astrophysics. You will be expected to establish their own area of expertise but may find synergies with our existing areas of strength (galactic magnetism, stellar and planetary (magneto-) hydrodynamics, AGN and accretion physics, neutron stars, cosmology and relativity). Applications are particularly encouraged from those with an interest in Astrostatistics. Newcastle has recently secured an STFC CDT [Science and Technology Facilities Council – Centre for Doctoral Training] in data intensive science in partnership with Northumbria University.

Expressions of interest open for STFC and Royal Society Fellowships

Newcastle University is currently accepting expressions of interest to be supported for the STFC Rutherford Fellowship and the Royal Society University Research Fellowship. Please consider applying by the deadline of July 17! At Newcastle, the expectation is that you would transition to an open-ended Lectureship position at the conclusion of these fellowships.

Several PhD Positions Available

We invite applications for several fully-funded PhD studentships in astrophysics at Newcastle University, starting in 2022. Within ourObservational Astronomy and Cosmology & Quantum Gravity groups, we offer a vibrant environment for PhD students and postdocs with links to other areas of physics, mathematics and statistics. We value equality, diversity and inclusion and strive to promote it within our groups and beyond.

Below is a short summary of the available positions:
X-ray polarization: a new window to understand black holes. Studentship supervised by Dr Adam Ingram
Deadline: January 31st 2022
Further details: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/postgraduate/fees-funding/search-funding/?code=msp045

Understanding the connections between supermassive black holes and galaxies with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Studentship supervised by Dr David Rosario
Deadline: January 31st 2022
Further details: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/postgraduate/fees-funding/search-funding/?code=msp041

Bell-Burnell Graduate Scholarship Graduate Scholarship for students from groups currently under-represented in Physics (part-funded from the IOP). Our group members offer several cosmology and observational astronomy projects.
Deadline: 12 December
Further details: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/postgraduate/fees-funding/search-funding/?code=msp040

Robinson Cosmology PhD studentships: Two prestigious PhD studentships in cosmology. We offer projects ranging from early universe theory to late-time cosmology with applications to galaxy surveys.
Deadline: 31 January
Further details:  https://research.ncl.ac.uk/phdstudentships/robinsoncosmology/

Lady Bertha Jeffrey’s PhD studentship in Theoretical Physics or Astrophysics:Prestigious PhD studentship in Theoretical Physics orAstrophysics. Projects range from black holes to galaxies and the cosmic web.
Deadline 31: January
Further details: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/postgraduate/fees-funding/search-funding/?code=msp042

Two PGRs win prizes for their scientific community service and outreach

The “EuCAPT Outstanding contributor” prize was awarded to Newcastle postgraduate researcher, Niko Sarcevic, during the First EuCAPT Annual Symposium. EuCAPT (European Consortium for Astroparticle Theory) is an organization with a goal of bringing together the European astroparticle and cosmology community. EuCAPT was established in 2019, with Gianfranco Bertone as a director and coordination from CERN. EuCAPT has over 600 members (2019 census).

“I joined EuCAPT as a junior contributor in the fall of 2020. I have been working closely with Gianfranco Bertone (GRAPPA) and David Marsh (Stockholm) on developing new ways of bringing the EuCAPT community together. An example of such an initiative is a new feature on the EuCAPT blog called “Community profiles” which is a weekly interview with a member of the community. Another example of my contribution is creating and hosting a  HEP-ASTRO-COSMO GitHub repository where all the open source code in the field of astroparticle, particle physics and cosmology is collected. Lastly, one of the campaigns resulted in the interactive community map featured on the EuCAPT home page. A similar code, publicly available, can be found on my website.”

The “Postgraduate Prize for Outreach” was awarded by the Newcastle School of Mathematics, Statistics, and Physics to Alex Gough. This prize was awarded for Alex’s contributions to the Astrobites collaboration and their public outreach talk to the Newcastle Astronomical Society about cosmology.

The Astrobites collaboration is an international group of masters and PhD students who write accessible summaries of current astrophysics research papers, as well as specialist “Beyond” posts about DEI problems in astronomy, mental health in academia, what the day-to-day life in astronomy looks like, and application processes and career advice. Contributing authors write approximately one article per month, along with helping edit other authors’ articles. 

“I’ve been reading Astrobites articles since I was in school, and getting to help contribute to the collaboration has been something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I think the ‘daily bites’, which make up the backbone of Astrobites provide a much needed niche in scientific literacy, helping aid undergraduate students in learning how to examine actual research articles. I’m excited to help contribute to some of the Beyond topics that Astrobites has become more focused on in recent years, especially concerning equity issues in astronomy and physics. You can read my current articles or find out about other things I do on my website.”

Outreach: New Astrobites Author

Alex will begin writing for Astrobites starting in 2021. The Astrobites collaboration is a group of astronomy and astrophysics graduate students around the world who write daily summaries of recent astrophysics research, accessible to the undergraduate level. These “daily summary posts” have made up the backbone of Astrobites over the last 10 years, and in more recent years they have begun to also write about things beyond daily summaries, including series of posts about DEI problems in astronomy, mental health in academia, what the day-to-day life in astronomy looks like, and application processes and career advice.

Welcome

We are launching our new research group website! We are a new group, interested in astronomy/astrophysics research topics mostly from an observational perspective. Our group properly started in 2020 with our first intake of PhD students and MRes students.

In this news feed we will post updates on our: research activities (papers, conferences, talks etc.), group membership and outreach/engagement activities.