Meetings
The Institute of Astronomy plans to host one large summer conference each year. Below is a list of upcoming and previous meetings at the IoA.
Upcoming & Recent Meetings
26 August 2019 - 30 August 2019
AstroHackWeek is also an unconference and hackathon. The afternoon every day is entirely unstructured, and offers opportunities for collaborative research, breakout sessions on special topics, and application of the concepts covered during the morning sessions. Come with a project in mind, join someone else's or apply a new skill to an old problem.
Meeting Website
16 September 2019 - 20 September 2019
The Kavli Institute for Cosmology, 10th anniversary Symposium
"Cosmology: the end of the beginning. Future prospects in cosmology, large scale structure and galaxy formation" will take place from Monday 16th - Friday 20th September 2019, in Cambridge, UK, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Kavli Institute.
Registration is now open, until 1st May. Abstract deadline is 1st April.
Meeting Website
6 January 2020 - 8 January 2020
Monday 6th - Wednesday 8th January 2020 at the Kavli Institute for Cosmology
The planets that are best understood are the four telluric planets of our own solar system. Applying the detailed understanding gleaned from these bodies is crucial in our interpretation of exoplanetary systems.
Meeting Website
Previous Meetings
5 September 2016 - 6 September 2016
Exoplanetary science is on the verge of an unprecedented revolution. With at least four space missions and numerous large ground-based facilities scheduled to become operational in the next decade, the new era promises unprecedented observations of exoplanets - both in their detection as well as in detailed characterization of their atmospheres, interiors, and formation conditions. Concomitant major developments are also expected in all aspects of exoplanetary theory and data interpretation.
24 July 2016 - 30 July 2016
Now that multiplicity is known to be common among stars and that half the stars in our Galaxy have been or will be altered by interaction with at least one companion, the crucial role of binary star evolution in astrophysics in general has been established. Stellar interactions lead to a veritable zoo of exotic objects, many of which play crucial roles in the Universe. However, our understanding of many of the basic properties of binary stars - how they form, evolve and interact and how they ultimately die - is still incomplete. These issues cannot be ignored in fields of astrophysics spanning stellar cluster evolution, planet formation, galactic chemical evolution, etc. We plan to discuss many of the exciting implications of duplicity among stars.
14 September 2015 - 18 September 2015
Conference rationale
Our ability to interpret the spectral energy distribution (SED) of galaxies is key to understanding how the physical processes at play in galaxies govern their evolution. Over the past decades, numerous multi-wavelength surveys have been carried out, sampling the ultraviolet to sub-millimetre SED of galaxies from the Milky Way neighbourhood to very high redshifts. To connect this treasure trove to the formation and evolution of galaxies through cosmic times, we need to derive precisely and accurately key astrophysical properties of galaxies: stellar mass, metal content, star formation history, dust mass and temperature, star formation rate, dust obscuration, heating sources, etc. At the same time, major investments have been made to build physically motivated SED models of galaxies with the aim of measuring their physical properties as reliably as possible. The aim of this workshop is to bring observers and modellers together to present their respective approaches in building and interpreting the SED of galaxies. In particular, we will discuss:
- the observed SED and the properties of galaxies: their evolution across cosmic times from the Milky Way to the highest redshifts,
- the building blocks of SED modelling: stellar populations, interstellar dust, young embedded star clusters, AGN,
- retrieving galaxy properties at various scales and redshifts by modelling their SED: radiative transfer and energy balance approaches,
- bringing models and observations together: "observing" galaxies from numerical simulations and comparing with real observations.
1 September 2015 - 3 September 2015
The Kavli Institute for Cosmology Cambridge and Institute of Astronomy are hosting a symposium from 1–3 September 2015 to coincide with the 60th birthday of Professor George Efstathiou, Director of KICC, and to celebrate George's many significant contributions to astrophysics and cosmology. The programme will cover many of George's scientific interests including dark matter and dark energy, galaxy surveys, galaxy formation, cosmic dawn, cosmic microwave background, and early-universe cosmology.
28 July 2014 - 1 August 2014
Conference Rationale
The University of Cambridge Institute of Astronomy will host a 5 day scientific meeting to further our understanding of the formation and evolution of planetary systems. The meeting will focus on the full lifetime of planetary systems, from pre- to post-main sequence host star stages, and the connections that can be made by viewing these evolutionary stages as parts of a whole. In this way, the program aims to provide an integrative approach rather than focusing on each stellar stage separately.
