Group Meetings:

These are a really important aspect of our activity, so please take a moment to read about the events below, and think about how you might contribute in the future.

We will continue with our Wednesday appointment for Journal Club, Student and Postdoc seminars, as well as the occasional Brainstorming session lead by the staff. This year we will introduce some new elements called 'AstroLunch' and 'AstroTeaBreak' which have been initiated by members of the students. To get the most out of these meetings, we suggest a few guidelines, drawing some inspiration from colleagues at Vanderbilt University and KIPAC Stanford. You can follow the scheduling of these events by using the group calendar (right) with your favourite calendar software.
 

AstroLunch - Once a month - Thursday pizza. 

AstroLunch is a once a month standing invitation for a very quick pizza on a Thursday in the restaurant next to SISSA. An email invitation will be sent. Meet at 1pm at the second floor coffee machine.  All comers welcome!
 

NEW: AstroTeaBreak - On demand ~once a month, Monday at 4.30pm.

AstroTeaBreak is aimed at providing a flexible format for several 'rapid-fire' self-contained discussions lead by students and postdocs. You should aim to talk for around ten to fifteen minutes, followed by ten minutes discussion. The emphasis here is on discussion and so putting together some polished slides is neither necessary nor particularly encouraged. Some suggestions for what you might talk about are:

• An interesting or amusing aspect of your current research or reading that others would benefit from hearing about ('The Titbit').
• A thorny problem that you'd like to explain and then get help with ('The Poser').
• A presentation you've put together for a short conference talk and for which you wish to get feedback. It's a well known fact that young or old, a presentation can always be improved in this way ('The Run through').
• A summary of the most exciting things you learnt from a research trip or a conference. Everyone should think in terms of presenting a conference summary at some point ('The Prodigal').
• A recent result or preprint that you are particularly excited about ('The Champion').
• A technique or software package that you use for your research which could benefit others ('The Method').
• A short summary of your most recent work or publication and your future directions ('The New Kid').

These meetings will be organised by (TBD). You should aim to spend no more than a morning's work preparing your contribution, gathering relevant PDF articles and plots that can't easily be reproduced on the blackboard. If several people do wish to give powerpoint presentations then please provide your slides in PDF format to the organizers ahead of time to try and mimimise the changeover time.

 

Journal Club, Student and Postdoc Seminars - Every Two weeks, Thursdays. at 1.30pm.

Our Thursday lunchtime appointment at 1.30pm in TBD offers the chance for Postdoc Seminars (particularly if you have recently arrived at SISSA), Student Seminars (weekly seminars around April/May of each year, which are a formal part of the PhD programme for second and third year students), and a Journal Club which we now describe.

The astronomical literature is huge. We will be able to review only a few papers each year and so naturally it is important to select the most significant papers for a Journal Club presentation.  By and large, these should be refereed papers from major international journals such as Astrophysical Journal, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Astronomy and Astrophysics, and Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle physics, CQD, PRD, PRL, Nature and Science. Outstanding preprints from the arxiv are also encouraged for review. Some guidelines for a Journal Club presentation (maximum 30 minutes) are:

• Avoid review papers.
• Highlight a new result or idea that may have some significance beyond a particular sub-field of astrophysics.
• Describe an application of a new technique, instrument, or technology to astronomical research.
• Point out a paper which presents a significant (perhaps controversial) discovery or insight.
• Choose a paper which you, the reviewer, find particularly interesting!

Some general tips to keep in mind for Journal Club presentations are:
 

• Discuss the paper with some of your colleagues beforehand. You may want to make sure a particular staff member can be present at your talk.
• Keep your audience in mind. Not everyone will be as familiar with the subject area as you.
• Review the most important issues the paper addresses. Review the key references as part of your reading.
• Explain what you think may be the strong and weak points of the paper.
• Close with a summary and describe any follow-up work you are undertaking.

These meetings will be organized by Sam Leach (leach@sissa.it) and someone else TBD.

Keeping on top of the astronomical literature can be intimidating at first and it helps to establish common interest groups. Naturally you'll want to be familiar with the ADS Abstract Service, and you may find the ArxivSorter service a useful way to sort daily abstracts according to your interests.
 

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is an occasional series of meetings lead by the staff aimed at stimulating discussion about the links that pervade different areas of astronomical research.