Report for JSPS Asian Science Seminar 2005

Date March 31, 2006

1.Title of Seminar

JASS'05-Subaru Asia Youth School on Synergic Observation with Large to Small Telescopes at the Frontier of Progress in Astronomy

2.Purpose of Seminar

Subaru Telescope, built in Hawaii and operated by NAOJ, has been in regular operation since 2000. The telescope has achieved breakthrough in various fields of astronomy such as study on protogalaxy formation in early stage of universe or direct detection of extrasolar planets. As globalization of astronomy prevails, it is the mission of Subaru Telescope to introduce the telescope built with the most advanced technology to researchers of younger generation, to educate them and to contribute to the advancement of astronomy in the world.
The seminar focuses on the researches that started with the use of small/medium size telescopes but that lead to the use of larger telescopes and the researches that need synergic observation using small to large telescopes. Those subjects are practical approach so that the seminar participants have demand to use large telescopes.

3.Period

From March 12, 2006 through March 18, 2006 (7 days)

4.Program: Agenda, topics, related activities (e.g., reception, excursion)

5.Venue

Royal Kona Resort, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, U.S.A.

6.Organizer

7.Lecturers and Participants

1) Number of Persons

2) Lecturers

A.Please describe rationale for selecting lecturers, and the need for and role of their lectures in the seminar.

We have selected the ones who can give lectures on a suitable subjects to the seminar as lecturers from Subaru Telescope. As for lecturers from Japan, we requested those who make a front-line research using Subaru Telescope. As for lecturers from East Asia, we requested one or two researchers for each region to be SOC member(s). According to their recommendation, we decided the lecturers from each region.

B.List

Place a check [*] in the Remark Column for those who will participate using JSPS's seminar funding.

3) Participants

A.Please describe how you recruited participants and why they were selected.

We advertised the seminar to the Japanese astronomy community. As for participants from East Asia other than Japan, we advertised the seminar through SOC members of each region and requested the members to recommend participants for us. We considered the balance of participants from each country/region and made a final decision for participants.

B.List

8.Achievements

1) Upon what concept was the seminar planned and organized? (As reference, attach lecture summaries and other related documents.)

To conform with a motivation of the seminar that is to introduce Subaru Telescope to the participants, we asked selected staff from Subaru to give lectures on the telescope, the instrumentation and the operation. We also invited Subaru Telescope users who have been awarded the telescope time most as the lecturers. Their lectures include the reviews on the latest results from Subaru Telescope such as cosmology or planet formation. We also invited lecturers from each country and region to give participants the latest science results in astronomy of the country/region. Program is attached.

2) What results were achieved from an academic viewpoint? Please list them concretely.

An observation program using Subaru Telescope for monitoring the pulsation of white dwarf has been discussed. Further discussion on building an observation proposal will be made after the seminar. The lecturers who used Subaru Telescope revealed the high performance of the telescope. One lecturer, Prof. Myung Gyoon Lee from Korea, made an observation of a dwarf galaxy IC10 using Subaru for about three hours. The observation showed the photometric data of stars of which number is by far the one from the past observations. The data suggests the existence of plenty reddened stars and the interpretation needs more discussion. Lectures and short talks by participants were concluded with possible observations using Subaru Telescope. Some observation ideas include observation of pulsation of stars, GRB follow-up observations, magnetic activity of cool stars or brown dwarfs.

3) What results were achieved in terms of international exchange and young researcher development?

Most participants traveled overseas for the first time. It was first time as well for them to see the top-class astronomy facilities. Through the facility tour to Subaru Telescope and SMA, the participants were stimulated to use the large telescopes for their science projects. Most participants are from East Asia of which culture has a lot in common. They soon started to talk each other and to discuss their sciences and other concerns. Although time was limited, the participants could receive lectures that they seldom hear in their home institute. Note that some participants show interest in the instrumentation projects one of our staff introduced. Some of them may participate in collaboration in instrumentation as well.

9.What sort of specific activities may be expected of the seminar participants in the future?

As the participants felt Subaru Telescope familiar and as they received information such as performance, specification and operation, I convince some participants will start writing observation proposal to Subaru Telescope. This is the most desirable results from the seminar because having more users is crucial for observatories and because gaining the access to the telescope which observation needs meet the most is the best way to get most science achievement. The participants will talk about what they learned during the seminar to their colleagues and stimulate them to consider to use Subaru Telescope. Collaboration among particpants will be stronger after the seminar.

10.Were the system and method of operating the seminar effective? Please note any specific suggestions your have for improving them?

Operation of the seminar could not be more effective than we did because the seminar was almost operated by two full-time staff. Number of total staff was nine, however, the contribution of the most staff was partial. Due to limited manpower, we effectively utilized the available manpower to the matters that needed most help - setting-up and closing-down of the seminar facility and tour guides. Transportation of participants is the thing that consumes most staff. We chartered a local tour company to let it handle the most labor-intensive business associated with the tour. We also used the local company for transportation of participants from/to the airport. It costed some extra but this strategy enabled us to concentrate our available manpower to the seminar itself. We would strongly suggest JSPS to have the seminar organizations allow the seminar organizers to spend for the labor by deregulating the ratio of the travel cost to the participants to the other expenditure.
Another thing to make our seminar most effective was that we set up the registration web page. We could build up the page in time with the help of our computer department. The information that most seminars will collect from participants has a lot in common. JSPS can help seminar organizers by providing them with tools to build the registration web page.

11.Please describe any other effects of the seminar that deserve special mention.

The interaction between the staff at Subaru Telescope and the participants was limited because the seminar was held in the remote place from the facility for Subaru Telescope. With these circumstances, however, some staff showed strong interest in future collaboration with participants and voluntarily lended hands by participating in the facility tour. This demonstrates the potential possibility of collaboration between Subaru Telescope and researchers in East Asia.
During the seminar, Subaru Telescope decided to grant limited amount of the telescope time to participants who write a proposal of the acceptance level. This encourages the participants to write good proposals and to make Subaru Telescope one of their choices. It should be noted that Subaru Telescope made an important decision to grant telescope time in a timely manner. Actually, very high prospect for access to Subaru Telescope the potential participants expressed to the organizer before the seminar pursued the Subaru Telescope management to offer the telescope time.

<Impressions of Participants>

12.What sort of impressions or opinions was expressed by the lecturers?

The seminar was highly appraised by the lecturers. Lectures from other countries than Japan are also longing to gain access to Subaru Telescope. They are very pleased with the seminar held by the initiative of Subaru Telescope. A lecturer said that short talks by participants were a showcase of astronomy in East Asia. Geographical location of Hawaii and the hotel that was used for the seminar and all participants stayed also scored a high satisfaction.

13.What results did you obtain by the questionnaire?

The rating shows that most participants answer A or B for all the questions. This shows that the seminar was satisfactory for most participants. It is impressive that many participants felt that they could build a strong network with East Asian researchers. Bad weather was a very bad luck, although out of control by the organizers. We could have invited more lecturers from Subaru Telescope to introduce the system more in details, although it is not easy because we have to keep the telescope running during the seminar. Also we could have invited lecturers and called students from Japan. We anticipated that more application would come from Japan but we had much less than expected though repeated advertisement in Japanese community. It may not be essential for Japanese to attend the seminar of this type because many Japanese students have chance to visit and to use Subaru Telescope. However, from the point of view of network building at the seminar, lack of Japanese participants are a serious problem and have to be solved at the next occasion.
The questionnaire has been summarized in the attachment.

<Views and Comments on Program>

14.Please give us your comments and opinions on the seminar program itself. What did you think of JSPS's application recruitment period, timing of the selection notice, seminar funding by JSPS, method of seminar operation, or other elements of the program? Do you have any specific suggestions as to how any of these components can be improved?

Timing of the selection notice is quite fast and appropriate. We had difficulty in taking the very first step of the venue arrangement - making a reservation of the hotel. Hotel required deposit to secure the reservation of both hotel rooms and meeting rooms. However JSPS required us to give the date of the seminar before making a contract. Fortunately the reservation was holded until the fund from JSPS became available because there was no other large businesses requesting to use the hotel during the same period. This situation could be relaxed if negotiating with a hotel in Japan. However, hotels in Hawaii strictly requires deposit to secure the reservation. This situation could be easily handed if JSPS allowed us to change the dates of the seminar more flexibly after the contract with JSPS.
We also noticed an inconsistency of the description in the seminar procedure ("Jisshi Yoko") and with the unwritten rules set by JSPS. The description in the seminar procedure did not clearly say that students from East Asian coutries who belong to an institute outside East Asia are not subject to the travel support. However, this is the rule within JSPS. We would suggest JSPS to review all the document including the procedure and to make all the exiting rules clearly written in the document. Unwritten or hidden rules just cause the confusion and create a big overhead to the organizer.

Sunday, March 12

Welcome Reception17:00-20:00

Monday, March 13

Tuesday, March 14

Mauna Kea Summit Tour8:00-18:30

Wednesday, March 15

Thursday, March 16

Excursion to Hawaii Volcano National Park and Subaru Base Facility at Hilo8:00-18:30
Demonstration of Subaru observation using the videoconferencing20:00-21:00

Friday, March 17

Posters

•Questionnaire for the Seminar Participants [PDF]