The Sixth Annual Conference on Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems (ADASS) will be held 22-25 September in Charlottesville, Virginia, at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel. The conference is hosted this year by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Additional sponsors include the Associated Universities, Inc., the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, the European Southern Observatory (tentative), NASA (tentative), the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, NOAO, the National Research Council of Canada, NSF, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, STScI, and the University of Virginia. ADASS is an international conference which provides a forum for scientists and programmers concerned with algorithms, software, and software systems employed in the reduction and analysis of astronomical data. The five previous ADASS meetings (1991--Tucson; 1992--Boston; 1993--Victoria, B.C.; 1994--Baltimore; and 1995--Tucson) have established ADASS as the leading world forum for scientists and software developers to discuss issues regarding algorithms and software systems for the acquisition, reduction, analysis, archiving, and retrieval of astronomical data.
The Program Organizing Committee for ADASS '96 has the following members: Rudi Albrecht (ST-ECF/ESO), Roger Brissenden (SAO), Tim Cornwell (NRAO), Dennis Crabtree (DAO/CADC), Bob Hanisch - Chair (STScI), Gareth Hunt (NRAO), George Jacoby (NOAO), Barry Madore (IPAC), Jonathan McDowell (SAO), Jan Noordam (NFRA), Dick Shaw (STScI), Karen Strom (Massachusetts), and Doug Tody (NOAO). The Local Organizing Committee is chaired by Richard Simon (NRAO), and has participants from NRAO, the University of Virginia Department of Astronomy, and the University of Virginia Computer Science Department.
The invited speakers for ADASS '96 currently include:
Tim Cornwell (NRAO), "Design and Implementation of Radio-Astronomical Calibration and Imaging in AIPS++" Gary Ferland (Kentucky), "Cloudy: Modeling the Emission From Astrophysical Nebulae" Keith Horne (St. Andrews), "Astrotomography" Harvey Liszt (NRAO), "A Home-Grown but Widely Distributed Data Analysis System" Michael Rosa (ST-ECF), "Physical Modeling of Scientific Instruments" Martin Shepherd (Caltech), "DIFMAP: An Interactive Program for Synthesis Imaging" Martin Weinberg (Massachusetts), "Modeling Galaxies" (tentative)
Several other speakers are still being contacted.
The key topics for ADASS '96 are:
The Program Organizing Committee invites ADASS participants to submit papers (either oral or poster) in any area related to astronomical software, but papers that fall within the key topics will be given primary consideration for inclusion in the oral program. Because of time limitations we encourage the submission of poster papers, and may need to schedule papers submitted as oral presentations as posters instead. Authors will be informed if their papers need to be switched from oral to poster format. Participants will also have the opportunity to set up live demonstrations of software, using workstations which will be available at the conference.
We expect to schedule a number of Birds-of-a-Feather (BoF) special interest sessions. BoFs are organized by ADASS participants and are usually 1 hours in length. Please contact the Program Organizing Committee (poc@stsci.edu) if you are interested in organizing a BoF. For us to schedule the overall program, ideas for BoF sessions must be submitted to the POC no later than 9 August 1996. Please include a brief abstract describing the BoF and some estimate of the number of people you might expect to attend.
A few special events have been scheduled for ADASS this year. On the Sunday before the conference begins, attendees may choose to take a tour of NRAO's Green Bank Observatory (and view the partially completed 100-m Green Bank Telescope as well as other facilities) or attend a half-day tutorial "Introduction to JAVA Programming" presented by Steve Fritzinger of Sun Microsystems, Inc. (JAVA is the programming language for network-based applications that has become so popular on the World Wide Web). There will be a nominal charge for either of these events. There will also be an IRAF Developer's Workshop following the Conference, again with a nominal charge.
The preliminary program for the Conference is scheduled to be mailed to the Conference mailing list in mid-May, as well as on-line from the Conference home page (http://www.cv.nrao.edu/adass/). The Program includes specifics about hotel reservations, registration, abstract submissions, demo requests, and travel assistance. Important dates include:
17 June 1996: Deadline for travel assistance requests 15 July 1996: Deadline for early registration Deadline for abstract submissions 9 August 1996: Deadline for BoF session proposals Deadline for demo requests 21 August 1996: Deadline for hotel reservations 12 Sept. 1996: Deadline for late registration 22-25 Sept. 1996: ADASS '96, Charlottesville, Virginia
For further information and to be placed on the mailing list for the conference, please send a request to either:
adass96@nrao.edu or to: ADASS '96 C. White National Radio Astronomy Observatory 520 Edgemont Rd. Charlottesville, VA 22903 USA
Mark your calendar now to attend ADASS '96!
Richard Simon, LOC Chair, NRAO