IAU Division (Division Web Page) J Bulletin No. 5; April 2015 INDEX * New Commissions * General Assembly * Call for candidates to Division J Steering Committee * Polarization angle convention for the CMB * Books: advertise your book! * Prizes received by Division members: advertise your prize! * International Conferences * Call for contributions --------------------------------------------------------------------------- * New Commissions: In a meeting held in Padua on 15-17 of April 2015, the following new Commissions, linked to our Division J, have been approved: C.J1 Galaxy Spectral Energy Distributions (Parent Division) C.J2 Intergalactic Medium (Parent Division) C.X1 Supermassive Black Holes, Feedback, and Galaxy Evolution (Cross-Division) C.H4 Stellar Clusters throughout Cosmic Space and Time (Inter-Division) The next step is to sign up for these new Commissions beginning April 20, 2015. The number of Commissions one may join is limited to three. The complete list of new commissions can be found at: http://www.iau.org/static/submissions/EC_Approved_Commissions.pdf --------------------------------------------------------------------------- * General Assembly (webpage: http://astronomy2015.org/) This is just a reminder of the Symposia and Focus Meetings endorsed by our Division, as well as our Division Meeting that will take place together with the next General Assembly Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, Aug. 3-14: Symposia IAUS 315 - From Interstellar Clouds to Star-forming Galaxies: Universal Processes? IAUS 317 - The General Assembly of Galactic Halos: Structure, Origin and Evolution IAUS 319 - Galaxies at High Redshift and Their Evolution Over Cosmic Time Focus Meetings -- FM 4 - Planetary Nebulae as Probes of Galactic Structure and Evolution -- FM 5 - The Legacy of Planck -- FM 6 - X-ray Surveys of the Hot and Energetic Cosmos -- FM 7 - Stellar Physics in Galaxies Throughout the Universe -- FM 12 - Bridging Laboratory Astrophysics and Astronomy -- FM 14 - The Gravitational Wave Symphony of Structure Formation -- FM 15 - Search for Water and Life's Building Blocks in the Universe -- FM 18 - Scale-free Processes in the Universe -- FM 22 - The Frontier Fields: Transforming our Understanding of Cluster and Galaxy Evolution Our Division Meeting will be on August 7th and 10th: http://aramis.obspm.fr/IAU-J/index.php?body=divJ-2015.html --------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Call for candidates to Division J Steering Committee Soon will be announced the call to renew IAU Division steering Committees, Presidents and Vice-Presidents. Be prepared to candidate by sending your statement of interest, limited to 150 words, mentioning your experience (especially with IAU functions), accompanied by a photo (<1Mb jpg). Elections will be organized electronically by IAU towards all members. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Polarization angle for the CMB Dr. Sperello di Serego Alighieri, from INAF, Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri (Largo E. Fermi 5, I-50125 Firenze, Italy), calls attention of the members of our Division to the convention for the polarization angle adopted by the CMB polarimetrists (PA increasing clockwise when you look at the source), which is opposite to the one used by all other astronomers and enforced by the IAU (PA increasing counter-clockwise, see the resolution adopted by IAU Commisions 25 and 40 at the GA in Sidney in 1973, Transactions of the IAU, Vol. XVB, p. 166). This unfortunate choice of the CMB polarimetrists is obviously causing problems and misunderstandings. If you wish to know more, just ask Dr. di Serego Alighieri, who has been in touch about this problem with several IAU people: Thierry Montmerle, Francoise Combes, and several members of Commission 25 of IAU Division B: Alistair Walker, Antonio Mario Magalhaes, Eugene Milone, Pierre Bastien and Saul Adelman; we may meet at the IAU GA in Honolulu to discuss and possibly bring the problem to a solution. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Books Sleeping Beauties in Theoretical Physics: 26 Surprising Insights Thanu Padmanabhan [paddy@iucaa.ernet.in] Springer Lecture Notes in Physics (April, 2015) [ISBN-13: 978-3319134420; ISBN-10: 3319134426] This book addresses a fascinating set of questions in theoretical physics which will both entertain and enlighten all students, teachers and researchers and other physics aficionados. These range from Newtonian mechanics to quantum field theory and cover several puzzling issues that do not appear in standard textbooks. Some topics cover conceptual conundrums, the solutions to which lead to surprising insights; some correct popular misconceptions in the textbook discussion of certain topics; others illustrate deep connections between apparently unconnected domains of theoretical physics; and a few provide remarkably simple derivations of results which are not often appreciated. The connoisseur of theoretical physics will enjoy a feast of pleasant surprises skilfully prepared by an internationally acclaimed theoretical physicist. Each topic is introduced with proper background discussion and special effort is taken to make the discussion self-contained, clear andcomprehensible to anyone with an undergraduate education in physics. Springer URL: http://www.springer.com/in/book/9783319134420 Amazon URL: http://www.amazon.com/Sleeping-Beauties-Theoretical-Physics-Surprising/dp/3319134426 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Prizes received by Division members: I, Thaisa Storchi Bergmann received the prize L'Oreal/UNESCO For Women in Science for Latin America 2015 (2015 L'Oreal-UNESCO Awards). --------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Next Science Meetings (2015): The number of forthcoming science meetings worldwide of interest to our Division is very large. Instead of listing them here, I remind you that these are available at the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre: 2015 Meetings ---------------------------------------------------------------------- * Call for contributions: If you wish to send contributions to the next * Newsletter that are relevant to our Division J, please send e-mail to * thaisa@ufrgs.br by *** June 10, 2015 ***. This will appear in the next * Bulletin issue, in June 2015. Thank you in advance for your inputs and best * regards. Thaisa Storchi Bergmann, Secretary of IAU Div J.