YERAC 2011

The Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics and the University of Manchester will host the 41st Young European Radio Astronomers Conference (YERAC), which will take place 18-20 July, 2011.

YERAC is an event geared toward those radio astronomers at an early stage of their career. YERAC is an annual meeting with an established history, the first such conference having been held in 1968. Indeed, many of the astronomers with a radio astronomy background who have started their career in Europe will have attended YERAC in the past.

One of the main aims of the YERAC meetings is that the participants, typically masters and doctoral students, as well as early-career postdoctoral researchers, learn from each other about different areas of radio astronom through a series of talks and presentations given by each participant exclusively to their peers throughout the conference. An important feature of these meetings is that all attendees are given the opportunity to present their research in an international conference setting, for the first time in most cases. This enables everyone to gain this valuable experience in a setting that is not intimidating, but is nonetheless constructive. Another benefit of this format is that the participants will be learning about the various aspects of radio astronomy research currently being undertaken around Europe.

The venues for this conference will be divided between two locations. The first of these is the University of Manchester, at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, located in the Alan Turing Building. The meeting will be held in the Sir Bernard Lovell Room for the first and last days (18 and 20 July) of the conference.

On the second day of the meeting, we intend to have a full-day excursion to the Jodrell Bank Observatory, where there will be a special programme planned. This will include a tour of the telescope and visitor's centre, presentations by noted professional astronomers, and an evening conference dinner, (weather permitting) outside, at the foot of the 76-metre Lovell telescope.

Accomodation for conference participants has been blocked off at Lambert Hall, found conveniently close to the main campus, Manchester city centre, and Piccadilly station, Manchester's principal train station, with easy access to Manchester airport.

Registration and financial support
For YERAC, we will have the ability to provide financial support for those participants who require it. This will include the costs of basic accomodation will, as will lunches, coffee, and dinner on the second day.

Registration will open on 1 March, 2011. The final number of conference attendees will be subject to our final budget, which will not be known until after mid-April. Therfore, we will register the first 30 eligible applicants, and after this cut-off, those who register will be placed on a waiting list. Once we have the final budget, we will then contact those on the waiting list to inform them whether or not we will be able to fund their attendance. Of course, those that wish to attend who do not require financial assistance will not need to be put on the waiting list. Due to space restrictions, however, there will be an overall limit of 50 participants. 

Please continue to check back at this site, as more details concerning accomodation, the conference programme, activites, and more will be posted here as they become available and finalised.

LOC:
Patrick Weltevrede
Robert Ferdman
Anita M. S. Richards

LOC Contact: yerac2011 [at] jb.man.ac.uk

More information on the website

YERAC 2011 is funded by RadioNet FP7.