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ICOA-6
CONFERENCE PROGRAM AND ABSTRACTS
1 Preamble
In planning ICOA-6 we decided to expand the traditional catchment of Asia and the Middle East and include Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific and the nations of North and South America, hence the theme “Highlighting the History of Astronomy in the Asian-Pacific Region”.
With more nations targeted, we were able to expand the range of traditional ICOA themes to include sessions on Islamic astronomy, the history of radio astronomy, the emergence of astrophysics, and ethnoastronomy and archaeoastronomy. The full range of ICOA-6 themes is listed below, and we will accept oral papers and poster papers for all sessions.
While the traditional ICOA themes have been well-supported at previous conferences, we are keen to accept papers on these new program areas, thereby helping to document developments in the Asian-Pacific area. Much has been written about the history of radio astronomy in Australia and the USA, but little has been published—in English—on the developments that have taken place in India, China, Korea, Japan, Canada, Mexico and the nations of South America. Likewise, when reviewing the emergence of astrophysics worldwide, historians of astronomy have tended to focus on developments in the USA and in Europe, yet most of the nations targeted by ICOA-6 now have active astrophysical research programs; we would like to hear about the origins and growth of astrophysics in your country. Islamic astronomy has a long tradition throughout the Middle East and in South East Asia and has featured in previous ICOA meetings, but always within the context of the ‘traditional’ program themes. For ICOA-6 we wish to highlight the special achievements of Islamic astronomers throughout the wider Asian-Pacific area by assigning a separate theme to this important area of astronomical history. Finally, by extending ICOA-6 to include Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific and the Americas we include an area of the globe that is rife with and ripe for ethnoastronomical and archaeoastronomical investigations. We look forward to hearing about some of this research during ICOA-6.
The program for each of the ten themes will be decided by a separate Program Committee, and the members of the various Committees are listed below. Oral papers will be assigned 30 minutes in total (20-25 minutes for the presentation and 5-10 minutes for discussion). Total space assigned to each poster paper is 600mm wide by 850mm deep. Pins and velcro stickers will be available in the poster display room.
2 Program Themes and Program Committees
1) Historical Developments in Radio Astronomy: The Last Fifty Years (Committee: Dr Wayne: Orchiston, Professor Bruce Slee, Professor Richard Strom & Professor Richard Wielebinski)
2) The Emergence of Astrophysics in the Asian-Pacific Region (Committee: Professor John Hearnshaw, Professor Bambang Hidayat & Professor Brian Warner)
3) Ethnoastronomy and Archaeoastronomy (Committee: Professor Kim Malville & Professor Bambang Hidayat)
4) Applied Historical Astronomy (Committee: Professor Richard Stephenson & Professor Liu Ciyuan)
5) Exchange and Development of Astronomical Knowledge (Committee: Professor Rajesh Kochhar & Professor Shi Yunli)
6) Historical Records and Observations (Committee: Professor Nha Il-Seong, Professor Irakli Simonia & Professor Richard Stephenson)
7) Ancient Observatories and Early Astronomical Instrumentation (Committee: Dr Tsuko Nakamura, Professor Nha Il-Seong & Dr Yukio Ohashi)
8) Calendars, Star Charts, and Chronology (Committee: Professor Boonraksar Soonthornthum & Dr Yukio Ohashi)
9) Islamic Astronomy (Committee: Professor Farhad Rahimi & Professor Raza Ansari)
10) Other Recent Research (Committee: Professor Richard Strom, Dr Tsuko Nakamura & Professor Shi Yunli)
3 Abstracts
You should decide which of the foregoing program themes your paper best belongs in, and then email your abstract to the relevant Program Committee Co-ordinator, including a comment of whether you wish to present an oral paper or display a poster. Please make sure that you also send copies to Tsuko Nakamura (tsukonk@yahoo.co.jp) and to Wayne Orchiston (Wayne.Orchiston@jcu.edu.au).
If you are not sure which program theme your paper should go in then let Tsuko Nakamura and Wayne Orchiston know and they will decide and get back to you.
The email addresses of the Co-ordinators of the various Program Committees are listed below:
Theme 1: Developments in Radio Astronomy (email: Wayne.Orchiston@jcu.edu.au)
Theme 2: The Emergence of Astrophysics (email: john.hearnshaw@canterbury.ac.nz)
Theme 3: Ethnoastronomy & Archaeoastronomy (email: kimmalville@hotmail.com)
Theme 4: Applied Historical Astronomy (email: f.r.stephenson@durham.ac.uk)
Theme 5: Exchange & Development of Astronomical Knowledge (email: rkk@nistads. res.in)
Theme 6: Historical Records and Observations (slisnha@hotmail.com)
Theme 7: Ancient Observatories & Early Astronomical Instrumentation (email: tsukonk@yahoo.co.jp)
Theme 8: Calendars, Star Charts, & Chronology (email: boonraks@chiangmai.ac.th)
Theme 9: Islamic Astronomy (email: farhimi@yahoo.com)
Theme 10: Other Recent Research (email: strom@astron.nl)
In order to help us quickly and efficiently produce the Conference Program and Abstract Book we would ask you to use the following example as your template (or guide) when preparing your own abstract:
Dr Elizabeth Alexander: first female radio astronomer
Wayne Orchiston, Centre for Astronomy, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia(Wayne.Orchiston@jcu.edu.au)
Although radio astronomy was born in 1931, it only began to flourish after WWII, largely as a result of wartime technological developments. One of the by-products of these defense science initiatives was the independent detection of solar radio emission in the USA, Denmark, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
The initial New Zealand observations were made with an RNZAF 200 MHz COL radar unit between 27 March and 1 April 1945, and were investigated by British-born Elizabeth Alexander, Head of the Operational Research Section of the Radio Development Laboratory. She then arranged for observations to be made at five different radar stations during April, and followed up with further solar monitoring between July and December 1945. Through this research, Elizabeth Alexander unwittingly became the first female scientist to work in the field that would subsequently become known as 'radio astronomy'.
This paper will discuss these pioneering investigations, the short research paper that Alexander published on this work in early 1946, and her remarkable pre- and post-war scientific careers in Singapore and Nigeria. It will also show how this wartime New Zealand work helped trigger the radio astronomy research program within the CSIRO's Division of Radiophysics in Australia.
Please make sure to limit your abstract to less than 300 words. Note that the deadline for the submission of abstracts is 31 May 2008.
Drs Wayne Orchiston & Tsuko Nakamura
(Joint Chairs, SOC)
