The 2nd EACOA Meeting


The 2nd EACOA Meeting

Date: August 25, 2007, 09:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Venue: Headquarters of NAOC, Main Building Room A601

Participants

Participants
China Mainland Prof. Gang Zhao Executive Director NAOC
Prof. Suijian Xue Director Assistant NAOC
Prof. Xiangqun Cui Director NIAOT/NAOC
Prof. Yongqiang Yao Chief Scientist for site survey program NAOC
Dr. Chengjin Jin Engineer of FAST project NAOC
Prof. Ji Yang Director Assistant PMO/NAOC
Prof. Xiaoyu Hong Director SHAO/NAOC
Prof. Zhong Liu Vice-director YNAO/NAOC
Prof. Na Wang Director UAO/NAOC
Prof. Shuangnan Zhang Tsinghua University
Prof. Caipin Liu Former group leader of PMO
KASI Prof. Seok Jae Park Director KASI
Dr.Minho Choi Director Assistant KASI
Mr. Woong Joong Kim KASI
Ms. Kyoung Suk Lee KASI
ASIAA Prof. Paul Ho Director ASSIA
Dr. Jeremy Lim Director Assistant ASSIA
NAOJ Prof. Shoken Miyama Director General NAOJ
Prof. Kaz Sekiguchi Head of the International Research Collaborations NAOJ
Mr. Masanori Kakiage Chief Admin. Official International Research Collaboration

Program

Meeting Program

Session I: Reports from parties (Chair: Gang ZHAO)
9:00-9:05am Welcome address (Gang ZHAO)
9:05-9:25am Report on the recent progress and activities of NAOJ (Shoken MIYAMA)
9:25-9:45am Report on the recent progress and activities of KASI (Seok Jae PARK)
9:45-10:05am Report on the recent progress and activities of ASSIA (Paul HO)
10:05-10:15am Report on the recent progress and activities of NAOC (Gang ZHAO)
10:15-10:30am From LAMOST to future telescope project (Xiangqun CUI)
10:45-11:00am The site survey in western China (Yongqiang YAO
Coffee Break
Session II: Reports on the EACOA collaboration projects (Chair: Paul HO)
11:15-11:25am FAST-Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (Chengjin JIN)
11:25-11:35am Reports on ALMA (Ji YANG)
11:35-11:45am Reports on the East Asia VLBI (Xiaoyu HONG)
11:45-11:55am Reports on the 2-m telescope network (Zhong LIU)
11:55-12:05pm Chinese Cooperation on SELENE Lunar Mission (Na WANG)
12:05-12:15pm The space program HXMT (Shuangnan ZHANG)
Lunch
Session III: Discussion (Chair: Seok Jae PARK)
1:30-3:30pm Discussing about the preparation for the 7th EAMA, the IYA2009, and other related issues
Coffee Break
4:00-4:30pm Visiting NAOC Lab.
Session IV: EACOA Business (Chair: Shoken MIYAMA)
4:30-5:30pm EACOA business issues, Secretariat, web pages, handling of money, new proposals (if any), the date and venue of the next meeting, etc.
End of the sessions
Banquet (Hui Zhen Lou Restrant)

The meeting proceeded according to the program above.

Summary

In the Session III:

  • A draft 7th EAMA program was presented. Comments and suggestions were exchanged.
  • It was agreed that each member institution make the best effort to give travel supports to the prospective participants from its region.
  • Kaz Sekiguchi provided a list of the persons who requested the travel support.
  • On the topics of the IYA2009, it was suggested that we should start planning East Asian events for the IYA2009.
  • The EACOA directors will write a letter to the UN secretary General to support the IYA2009.

Session IV: EACOA Business issues:

  • Purposes and the organization structure of the EACOA were reaffirmed and were discussed.
  • It was mentioned that political importance of the EACOA should be recognized.
  • To start with, the EACOA should focus on the following on-going activities:
    1) East Asian Telescope Site Survey Project
    2) The 2-m Telescope Network on the Extra-Solar Planet Search
    3) The East Asian VLBI Project
    4) The East Asian ALMA Regional Centre
as well as,
arranging the EACOA web site for providing information,
organizing the East Asian Meeting on Astronomy (EAMA),
supporting Exchange Programmes for young astronomers,
supporting the East Asian Young Astronomers' Meeting.

On the issues of the organization structure;

The main body of the EACOA is The Directors' Meeting (DM).
The DM consists of four directors of the member institutions.
The DM oversights the EACOA activities
The DM gives direction to the EACOA activities.
The DM meets once a year to discuss various issues concerning promotions of the East-Asian regional astronomy activities.

It was agreed that we form The Secretariat under the DM, which consists of four representatives (one from each) of the member institutions.
Members applinted are:
Prof. Suijian Xue, NAOC
Dr. Minho Choi, KASI
Dr. Jeremy Lim, ASSIA
Prof. Kaz Sekiguchi, NAOJ

The Secretariat will handle issues concerning,

  • Organizing the Directors' Meeting
  • Preparing the agenda to the Directors' Meeting
  • Maintaining the EACOA Web Page
  • Organizing the EAMA Symposium
  • Supporting the research exchange programs
  • Supporting the East Asian Youth Seminar
  • Promoting the EACOA activities to a wider East Asian astronomy community
  • else

One of the member institutions will be appointed as the Secretary Institution which, consulting with the other Secretariat members, manages various issues of the EACOA.

The appointment of the Secretary Institution is three years in term. It will be rotated among the member institutions.

The NAOJ (Japan) will be the Secretary Institution from April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2011. Also, the NAOJ will act as the interim Secretary Institution from now until the March 31, 2008.

On the money handling issues:

The Secretary Institution shall collect dues from the member institutions and manages them as an EACOA Fund.
The EACOA Fund will be used for;

  1. supporting the International Meetings and Seminars which promote East-Asian Astronomy activities,
  2. supporting the travel costs conducting the collaborative research works and attending the meetings and/or seminars,
  3. supportubg the collaborative research works,
  4. operatuib costs for the EACOA activities,
  5. various other EACOA related activities,
  6. else.

The NAOJ, as the Secretary Institution, will work out with the members to find out the suitable way to collect annual due (perhaps as a membership fee).

The amount of annual due is depending on the scale of the activities. The initial amount of US$10,000/yr was mentioned.

Action items:

  1. The NAOJ, with helps from the member institutions, will set up the EACOA web page.
  2. The NAOJ will prepare the budget plan for the EACOA and will collect the annual due from the member institutions.
  3. Prof. Park will draft a letter to send to the UN Secretary General supporting the IYA2009.
  4. Prof. Sekiguchi will contact the organizers of the EAYAM and will discuss about effective use of the EACOA support with them.

Next Meeting

The Next Meeting
The ASIAA kindly offered hosting the next EACOA meeting in November 2008.