FINAL ANNOUNCEMENT
"New Light on Young Stars: Spitzer's View of Circumstellar Disks"
October 26-30 2008, Hilton Hotel, Pasadena CA
The SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM for the conference has been finalized.
We have 17 review talks, 29 contributed talks, a panel discussion
on disk nomenclature, and 124 poster presentations. The agenda can
be found here.
The abstract book for the conference will be available online
on Thursday, October 16.REGISTRATION: As of October 15, more than 224 participants had registered for the conference. Although no more posters are solicited due to space constraints, registrations will be accepted online until Friday, October 17 at a cost of $300 which includes the conference banquet. Please encourage any colleagues who have deferred registration to sign up here. On-site registrations ($350) will be cash only. Due to financial commitments at this late date, no conference registration refunds are possible.
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS: An on-line record of the conference presentations will be preserved on the conference website. By default, all submitted abstracts, as well as versions of the invited and contributed talks presented at the meeting will be archived as PDF files. We will be accepting PDF versions of poster presentations and modified talk presentations until November 20. Please take this opportunity to add your coauthors to your contribution as our registration software only recorded the first authors. We intend to submit all conference abstracts and PDF files for inclusion in ADS. Thus, please make sure that your contributions are clear, concise, and do not require that the reader is a conference attendee. Note that we cannot accept PDF files larger than 5 MB.
PRESENTATIONS will be loaded onto conference computers prior to the beginning of each session. Speakers should give their presentations to the conference organizers in the A/V ready room by 4 pm on the day prior to their talk. Monday speakers can give their talks to conference personnel during the Sunday evening reception. There will be both a Mac and Windows laptop for presentations. Speakers may not use their own laptops for presentations due to the time delay this always produces. As a reminder, invited talks are 40 minutes + 10 minutes for discussion. Contributed talks are 15 minutes + 5 minutes for discussion.
POSTERS need to fit into a 1 meter by 1 meter space. Velcro tape will be provided to fasten the posters to the backboard. The company which supplies the backing does not permit the use of push pins or tacks on their boards. The location of your poster will be indicated by the number assigned in the conference program book. Most of the posters will be on display in the California Ballroom from 4 pm on Sunday, Oct. 26 - 6 pm Wednesday, Oct. 29. Unfortunately, we lose that display space on Wednesday evening. A block of posters about debris disks will instead have poster space in the back of the International Ballroom. These can remain up through the end of the Thursday, Oct. 30 session on debris disks. There is a Kinko's at 855 E. Colorado Blvd. (two blocks north and 6 blocks east of the Hilton, open 24 hr) for those who need to (re)print posters on-site.
INTERNET ACCESS will be provided during the conference sessions for attendees. We will have wireless high-speed connections for those with laptops and an internet cafe for participants without laptop computers.
PARKING is available at a cost of $8 per day at the Hilton. The validation required to obtain this rate (otherwise $18 per day!) will be at the registration desk. Please beware of street parking near the Hilton as the Pasadena Parking police take their jobs seriously.
STUDENT LODGING SUPPORT to attend the conference was awarded to graduate students with demonstrated need and merit. If you were notified, on July 28 2008, of an award of a lodging allowance, you will receive separate instructions this week and during the conference, on how the award will be made. Basically the process will consist of submitting an invoice from your institution, upon which payment will be made to the institution. The award will be contingent on your actual attendance at the conference. Note that the invoice and payment will occur after your trip. We will appreciate the cooperation of the awardees in adhering to the detailed instructions that will be provided to them.
SCHEDULE REMINDERS: The Huntington Tour departs from the Hilton at 10 am on Sunday, October 26. It will return around 4 pm. There are still four spaces available. The conference will begin with registration starting at 4 pm. The poster room will be open starting at that time for putting up posters. The opening reception starts at 5 pm. There is a banquet at the Twin Palms restaurant (included in the registration fee) on Wednesday evening.
As always, if you have questions about the conference or logistics, send an email to spitzer08 AT ipac.caltech.edu.
We are looking forward to an exciting meeting less than 2 weeks from now !
The 2008 Spitzer Conference SOC and LOC
FIFTH ANNOUNCEMENT
"New Light on Young Stars: Spitzer's View of Circumstellar Disks"
October 26-30 2008, Hilton Hotel, Pasadena CA
CONTRIBUTED TALK speakers have been selected by the conference SOC, and
are now posted here.
More than 90 talks were proposed, but the schedule could only accommodate
28 of them. The SOC was impressed with the quality of the submissions,
and had to make some difficult choices. The final conference program
with the detailed schedule of each day will be posted shortly. REGISTRANTS numbered 185 as of Friday Sep 12. Late registrations are still solicited here. Unfortunately, we are now at our display area limit of 124 posters so we cannot accept any more poster abstracts. The area provided for each poster is approximately 1 m x 1 m.
CONFERENCE LODGING is essentially full at the Hilton, and only a few rooms remain available at the Sheraton. Due to other local events, we will not be able to expand our block of discounted rooms in either hotel. A list of Pasadena area hotels for alternate lodging can be found here. Websites for these hotels can be found using your favorite search engine.
HUNTINGTON LIBRARY AND GARDENS TOUR: For early arrivals, there will be a bus trip to the Huntington starting at 10 AM on Sunday morning Oct. 26. The Huntington is home to a distinguished library, art museum, and 120 acres of diverse flora from around the world. An additional fee of $25 will cover admission and roundtrip transportation from the conference hotels. For a preview of what can be seen at the Huntington, see this site or Wikipedia . The bus will return to the Hilton in time for the opening reception.
As always, if you have questions about the conference or logistics, send an email to spitzer08 AT ipac.caltech.edu.
The 2008 Spitzer Conference SOC and LOC
FOURTH ANNOUNCEMENT
"New Light on Young Stars: Spitzer's View of Circumstellar Disks"
October 26-30 2008, Hilton Hotel, Pasadena CA
REGISTRATION has been strong for the conference, with more than 175 of you signed up as of August 29. A list of paid registrants is now posted at http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/spitzer2008/participants.html. Requests for contributed talks are oversubscribed by a factor of 3:1. The SOC is currently deliberating the conference program, and will announce the talk schedule within 2 weeks. Late registrations (including poster abstracts) are still solicited; sign up at on the registration page.
SCHEDULE REMINDER: The conference opens with registration, reception, and a poster session mid-afternoon on Sunday 10/26. The banquet, which is included in your registration fee, will be on Wednesday night 10/29. The conference will conclude by 5pm on Thursday 10/30.
LODGING ARRANGEMENTS should be made as soon as you can. Only a few rooms remain available at the Hilton. Across the street at the Sheraton, a good number of rooms remain available. Due to other local events, conference rate rooms at both hotels have sold out for Saturday night 10/25. If you are planning a Saturday arrival and do not yet have a reserved room, you will need to find alternative lodging for that night only. A list of Pasadena area hotels can be found here. Websites for these hotels can be found using your favorite search engine.
The Hilton and Sheraton websites (see the links on the lodging page) will try to charge a higher room rate for your entire stay if you now request reservation dates extending outside the bounds of Oct. 26-30. You can avoid this by making separate reservations for the conference dates above, and any other dates you may need before or after the meeting.
Be advised that our Hilton and Sheraton room contracts stipulate that our attendees will be charged the government room rate for Pasadena. Our meeting takes place after the start of the new fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. At that time, we are expecting that the federal General Services Administration will revise the Pasadena goverment rate upward slightly from its current level of $118/night.
HUNTINGTON LIBRARY AND GARDENS TOUR: For early arrivals, there will be a bus trip to the Huntington starting at 10 AM on Sunday morning Oct. 26. The Huntington is home to a distinguished library, art museum, and 120 acres of diverse flora from around the world. An additional fee of $25 will cover admission and roundtrip transportation from the conference hotels. For a preview of what can be seen at the Huntington, see huntington.org or Wikipedia. The bus will return to the Hilton in time for the opening reception.
As always, if you have questions about the conference or logistics, send an email to spitzer08 AT ipac.caltech.edu.
We are looking forward to an exciting meeting 8 weeks from now !
The 2008 Spitzer Conference SOC and LOC
THIRD ANNOUNCEMENT
"New Light on Young Stars: Spitzer's View of Circumstellar Disks"
October 26-30 2008, Hilton Hotel, Pasadena CA
http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/spitzer2008
*** EARLY REGISTRATION AND CONTRIBUTED TALKS DEADLINE: FRIDAY AUGUST 8 ***Friday August 8 is the abstract deadline for contributed talks and for early registration at the reduced rate of $250. Talks and posters are solicited in the following topic areas:
- Surveys of star-formation regions
- Effects of environment and central object on disk properties
- Structure of protostellar/protoplanetary disks and envelopes
- Spectroscopic diagnostics of circumstellar gas and dust
- Transition disks, disk evolution, and planet formation
- Frequency, structure, and theory of debris disks
To register, visit the registration page. Please note that the mailing address entered on the registration form needs to match the billing address of your credit card, in order for the billing transaction to process correctly. Please also make sure to enter a State or Province in the appropriate field, rather than leaving it blank, when entering your address.
For attendees that may require invitation letters to obtain visas to enter the United States, email us at spitzer08 AT ipac.caltech.edu, and we will provide one for you.
LODGING: We remind you that room reservations must be made by Sep. 25 (Pasadena Hilton) or Oct. 06 (Pasadena Sheraton) to get the government room rate (currently $118/night plus taxes). The number of rooms available to our attendees is limited, so we urge you to reserve soon to avoid the possibility of higher rates or more distant accommodations. Reservations should be made through dedicated web pages set up by each hotel: see the lodging page for these links. It is not necessary to telephone the hotels to make your reservation.
HUNTINGTON LIBRARY AND GARDENS EXCURSION: For early arrivals, we are planning a bus trip to the Huntington Gardens on Sunday morning Oct. 26. The Huntington is home to a distinguished library, art museum, and 120 acres of diverse flora from around the world. An additional fee of $25 will cover admission and roundtrip transportation from the conference hotels. The tour will depart at 10 AM, and return to the hotel by 3:30 PM. After a group orientation tour, you will be free to get lunch at the on-site restaurants and explore the grounds individually in the afternoon. You should sign up for the Huntington excursion at the time of registration.
Please direct any questions about the conference to spitzer08 AT ipac.caltech.edu. We look forward to your participation in the meeting!
Sincerely yours,
The 2008 Spitzer Conference SOC and LOC
SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT
"New Light on Young Stars: Spitzer's View of Circumstellar Disks"
October 26-30 2008, Hilton Hotel, Pasadena CA
http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/spitzer2008
We would like to call your attention to two upcoming deadlines for
the 2008 Spitzer Science conference. FRIDAY, JULY 18 is the deadline to request travel support funding for student attendees. Applicants must be the presenting author of a talk or poster at the meeting. An abstract of the student's contribution must be submitted along with the funding request, and an endorsement email from their faculty advisor should be sent to spitzer08 AT ipac.caltech.edu. In most cases, support will take the form of waiver of the registration fee. Depending on the number of applicants, additional support in the form of lodging costs may be covered for particularly deserving applicants in need of such assistance. To apply for student travel support, visit this page.
FRIDAY AUGUST 8 is the abstract deadline for contributed talks and for early registration at the reduced rate of $250. Talks and posters are solicited in the following topic areas:
- Surveys of star-formation regions
- Effects of environment and central object on disk properties
- Structure of protostellar/protoplanetary disks and envelopes
- Spectroscopic diagnostics of circumstellar gas and dust
- Transition disks, disk evolution, and planet formation
- Frequency, structure, and theory of debris disks
To register, visit the registration page. Please note that the mailing address entered on the registration form needs to match the billing address of your credit card, in order for the billing transaction to process correctly. It is to your advantage to make your lodging arrangements sooner rather than later; see the lodging page.
For attendees that may require invitation letters to obtain visas to enter the United States, email us at spitzer08 AT ipac.caltech.edu and we will provide one for you.
Requests to be added to the conference mailing list, or any questions about the meeting should be directed to spitzer08 AT ipac.caltech.edu.
We look forward to seeing you in October!
Sincerely yours,
The 2008 Spitzer Conference SOC and LOC
FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT
"New Light on Young Stars: Spitzer's View of Circumstellar Disks"
October 26-30 2008, Hilton Hotel, Pasadena CA
http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/spitzer2008
You are cordially invited to participate in the 2008 Spitzer Science
Center Conference on circumstellar disks.The unprecedented infrared sensitivity of the Spitzer Space Telescope has enabled major advances in the study of protostellar, protoplanetary, and debris disks. Now, as Spitzer nears the transition from cryogenic to warm mission, it is an opportune time to assess and synthesize recent progress in our understanding of circumstellar disks and focus on the outstanding science questions for future work. At the meeting, results from Spitzer's surveys of circumstellar matter in the Milky Way will be considered in the context of work at other wavelengths and underlying theory in the following topic areas:
- Surveys of star-formation regions
- Effects of environment and central object on disk properties
- Structure of protostellar/protoplanetary disks and envelopes
- Spectroscopic diagnostics of circumstellar gas and dust
- Transition disks, disk evolution, and planet formation
- Frequency, structure, and theory of debris disks
The meeting should be a milestone for our community in assessing how Spitzer has impacted these areas of astronomy. The program will consist of invited reviews, contributed talks, and posters. The conference talks and posters will be posted online as a permanent record of the meeting. A more detailed agenda and list of confirmed speakers can be found on the conference website (see above). The conference will open with registration, poster session, and a reception on Sunday afternoon Oct 26. Four full days of scientific sessions will follow Oct 27-30.
REGISTRATION is now open on the conference website. The registration fee covers the opening reception, conference materials, coffee breaks, and the conference banquet. The fee schedule is $250 for early registration (by Aug. 8), $300 for late registration (by Oct. 17), and $350 for onsite registration (no credit cards accepted).
ABSTRACTS for posters and contributed talks should be submitted at the time of registration. Contributed talks will have a duration of 15 min plus 5 minutes of discussion. The number of contributed talks will be limited: from the expected oversubscription of proposed talks, the SOC will select the final schedule. Selected speakers will be notified by Sep. 10. Talk requests that cannot be accommodated will revert to posters.
SUPPORT funding for a very limited number of student attendees will be available. See the conference website for further information on how to apply. The application deadline is July 18.
LODGING is available at the prevailing government rate (currently $118 per night plus taxes) at both the Pasadena Hilton and the Pasadena Sheraton hotels. The latter is located a short walk from the conference hotel. Links to the hotel reservation pages can be found here. These business-class lodgings are located adjacent to the Paseo shopping plaza which hosts a variety of dining and entertainment options. They are also located within 15 min walking distance from Old Town Pasadena, one of the most popular restaurant districts in Southern California. Room reservations must be made by Sep. 25 (Hilton) or Oct. 06 (Sheraton) to get the conference room rate. The number of rooms available to our attendees is limited, so reserve early to avoid the possibility of higher rates or more distant accommodations.
PASADENA is best known as the host city for the Tournament of Roses Parade, but it is also home to Caltech, the Huntington Gardens, and the Norton Simon Museum of Art. For early arrivals, we are planning a bus trip to the Huntington Gardens on Sunday Oct. 26. The Huntington is home to a distinguished library, art museum, and 120 acres of diverse flora from around the world. An additional fee of $25 will cover admission and roundtrip transportation from the conference hotels. For a preview of what can be seen at the Huntington, see the wikipedia page and Huntington Gardens website
Transportation from Los Angeles International or Burbank Regional Airports to the conference hotels is provided by a variety of van services. This link contains information that will help plan your travel to Pasadena.
Requests to be added to the conference mailing list, or any questions about the meeting should be directed to spitzer08 AT ipac.caltech.edu.
We look forward to seeing you in October!
Sincerely yours,
The Spitzer Conference SOC and LOC
