Astronomical News

Figure 1. Participants at ERIS 2015 photographed and gave them a U-Bahn ticket for the and to all of the lecturers, tutors and ESO helpers for outside the new ESO Headquarters building. central zone instead. All arrived promptly their work in designing and presenting a coherent programme. Many other people helped to make the at ESO the next morning, so this was school a success. We would particularly like to Social events included two buffet sup­ probably the right decision! thank: Tim de Zeeuw and Katherine Blundell for their pers at ESO (one a magnificent Bavarian after-dinner talks; Berkan Maruthadiyan and Tamas Further information, including all of the Tutundiscz for audio-visual and laptop support; Ana barbecue). These were each followed by Vukovic for keeping us supplied with coffee; Andrea evening science lectures, by Katherine lectures, tutorial scripts and datasets can Dinkel and colleagues for sorting out the finances; 1 Blundell from the on be found at the school home page . and Wolfgang Wild for agreeing to the substantial the Galactic SS433 and by ESO contribution. Finally, at every meeting there is usually one person without whom the whole organi­ Tim de Zeeuw on the work of ESO. Both sation would have fallen apart. In our case, this was Acknowledgements events proved very popular with the Elena Zuffanelli, who worked long and hard to make the school a success. ­students and the of the questions The meeting was co-sponsored by ESO and suggested that we had (on average, if ­Radionet3, an EU Integrated Infrastructure Initiative not for every individual) provided the right to coordinate access, development, and training for 2 Links amount of alcohol beforehand. We radio facilities in . RadioNet3 has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh 1 ERIS 2015 school home page: http://www.eso.org/ decided that forcing the students to visit Framework Programme for research, technological sci/meetings/2015/eris2015.html the local LOFAR station on their “free” development and demonstration under grant agree­ 2 Radionet3: http://www.radionet-eu.org afternoon was a bad idea, given the com­ ment no 283393. We are grateful to the members petition from other attractions in Munich, of the Local and Scientific Organising Committees

The AstroMundus–ESO Connection

Liz Humphreys1 The AstroMundus Programme is an E+ tion Committee providing on-the-spot Gaitee Hussain1 Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters Degree feedback. The AstroMundus visit of Andy Biggs1 course in astronomy and 25–26 January 2016 is described. Hau-Yu Lu1 offered by a consortium of European Eric Emsellem1 universities and research institutes. In Annalisa De Cia1 2014 and 2016, AstroMundus Masters Nine students from the AstroMundus Alexis Lavail1 students visited ESO and participated Programme1 visited ESO during the after­ Jason Spyromilio1 in proposal-writing sessions, during noon of Monday 25 January 2016, with a which groups of students speed-wrote ­welcome and introduction to ESO given complete ALMA proposals, before pre- by Eric Emsellem. Annalisa De Cia, Alexis 1 ESO senting them to a pseudo Time Alloca- Lavail and Jason Spyromilio then took

The Messenger 163 – March 2016 51 Astronomical News Humphreys L. et al., The AstroMundus–ESO Connection

the students on a tour of ESO, including Figure 1. The nine the assembly hall where they could ­Masters students, who participated in the gain an insight into instrument develop­ AstroMundus 2016 visit ment activities (see Figure 1), and a to ESO, shown in the chance to see components of the Euro­ Assembly Hall. pean Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) and the upgrade work on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) instrument CRIRES+.

The following morning was devoted to a single topic: how to write a good pro­ posal. The sessions started with short talks by Liz Humphreys and Gaitee ­Hussain, outlining the mission (to speed- write an Atacama Large Millimeter/­ submillimeter Array [ALMA] proposal), introducing ALMA and explaining the important points of proposal-writing. Hau-Yu (Baobab) Lu, an ESO , then Figure 2. Participants in presented one of his successful ALMA the 2016 AstroMundus– ESO speed-writing proposals and explained what information ­proposal session. The he had included in the proposal, and why. technical assistants, and some members of The students then split into three groups the Time Allocation Panel, are also present: to prepare their own ALMA proposals. Baobab Lu (first on the Each group was provided with a techni­ left), Andy Biggs and cal assistant with ALMA expertise (Andy Liz Humphreys on the Biggs, Baobab Lu and Liz Humphreys), far right. who could help them to prepare the tech­ nical case and guide them in the use of the ALMA Observing Tool (OT). The topics of the proposals were pre-selected by these technical assistants, based on exciting ALMA results that the students titles, the students completed their References could use as a basis for their work. The ­mission to submit their proposals by the ALMA Partnership, Brogan, C. et al. 2015, ApJ, topics were: protoplanetary discs, based deadline. Each team of students then 808, L3 on the iconic ALMA HL Tau image (ALMA gave a ten-minute presentation of their Oberg, K. et al. 2015, Nature, 520, 198 Partnership, Brogan et al., 2015); the proposals, highlighting the important Maiolino, R. et al. 2015, MNRAS, 452, 54 high-redshift Universe, based on ALMA ­scientific and technical aspects. The observations of normal at Time Allocation Committee, comprised Links z ~ 7 (Maiolino et al., 2015); and astro­ of Biggs, Humphreys, Hussain and chemistry, based on the finding that the Lu, then gave feedback on the proposals’ 1 AstroMundus programme:­ disc of the nearby low-mass star MWC strengths and weaknesses. We were http://www.astromundus.eu 340 has a comet-like composition (Oberg thoroughly impressed by what the stu­ et al., 2015). Each group needed to pre­ dents were able to achieve in such a Information on the AstroMundus Programme pare a complete science case (up to short time. four pages) and provide the technical The E+: Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters Degree (EMJMD) course in astronomy and astrophysics information required by the ALMA OT. A Based on the quality of their work and (AstroMundus Programme) is offered by a consor­ justification of the technical setup in the their enthusiasm for the task at hand, tium of universities. The institutes participating in OT was also required. Due to the short we are sure we will see AstroMundus AstroMundus include the host University of time available, the students were allowed graduates using ESO and ALMA facilities ­ (), the universities of ­(), Göttingen­ (), Padova and Rome to write their science case in the form of in the near future. One current example Tor Vergata (). Associated partners are: the bullet points. is Aleksandar Cikota, an AstroMundus Astronomical Observatory of Belgrade;­ Istituto graduate who is a PhD student at ESO ­Nazional Di Fisica Nucleare – Gran Sasso Science After a very hectic and enjoyable and the International Max-Planck Institute (Italy); and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research ­(Germany). All students start 2.5 hours, filled with discussions on how Research School (IMPRS). Aleksandar at the ­University of ­Innsbruck and then continue their to set up observations, how to make was a participant in the first AstroMundus- studies, getting the chance to work in at least two science cases unique and compelling, ESO speed-proposal writing session of the four countries participating in the programme. and brainstorming memorable proposal held in 2014.

52 The Messenger 163 – March 2016