Submission deadline close: Dec. 15th

PROGRAMME

The 361st International Astronomical Union (IAU) Symposium will be held in Ballyconnell, Ireland in May 2020. This international conference will bring together observational and theoretical astrophysicists to discuss all aspects of massive stars, their formation, evolution and ultimately their demise as supernovae. The special focus for this conference is on massive stars in the early Universe, how they lived and died, and how they compare with massive stars in our Galaxy.

We are also organising a short Massive Stars Summer School, which will run during the week before the Symposium from Wednesday to Friday 13th to 15th of May 2020. This will be held at the I-LOFAR Education Centre on the grounds of Birr Castle, in Birr, Co. Offaly in the centre of Ireland. This historic astronomy site is beside the Irish node of the LOFAR radio telescope and the Leviathan of Parsonstown, largest telescope in the world for much of the 19th Century.

The Massive Stars Commission (G2) of the IAU's Stars and Stellar Physics Division organises this symposium, typically held every 4 years, to present the latest research findings, discuss the status of current research in massive stars, and chart the way forward for future research. The first meeting was in Argentina in 1971, and in the last decade we organised "Massive Stars: from Alpha to Omega" in Greece (2013) and "IAUS 329: The Lives and Death Throes of Massive Stars" in New Zealand (2016).

INVITED SPEAKERS

Emma Beasor, Danielle Berg, Marica Branchesi, Volker Bromm, Paul Crowther, Selma de Mink, JJ Eldridge, Dawn Erb, Miriam Garcia, Ana Gomez de Castro, Lionel Haemmerle, John Hillier, Raphael Hirschi, Roberta Humphreys, Norbert Langer, Danny Lennon, Andrea Mehner, Kathryn Neugent, Kazuyuki Omukai, Stanley Owocki, John Regan, Michel Rieutord, Tomer Shenar, Stephen Smartt, Nathan Smith, Sung-Chul Yoon.

REGISTRATION & ABSTRACT SUBMISSION

Submit an abstract before 15th December 2019: https://www.massivestars2020.ie/registration/abstract-submission/

Register here: https://www.massivestars2020.ie/registration/register-here/

The conference fee is €350 (or €380 after 14th February 2020) and includes the Welcome Reception, Transport from Dublin to Cavan on Sunday evening, coffee breaks and lunches on all days, and the conference dinner. You will receive instructions on how to pay after you register. Note that registration is on a first-come basis until the conference is full, so we encourage you to register early.

Summer School: https://www.summerschool2020.space

CONFERENCE VENUE

The meeting will be held at the Slieve Russell Hotel in Ballyconnell, Co. Cavan, Ireland. The Slieve Russell is a 4-star resort hotel, golf and country club in rural Cavan with state-of-the-art conference facilities. There is a block booking of 200 bedrooms in the Slieve Russell Hotel from Sunday 17th May 2020 to Friday 21st May 2020 (5 nights) at a special Bed & Breakfast rate per night of €75.00 single occupancy or €55.00 per person sharing (€110.00 per night for a double or twin occupancy bedroom), valid until 17th April 2020 or until all rooms are booked out.

PROCEEDINGS

We will publish an online-only proceedings according to the IAU specifications.

TRAVEL

The main airport in Ireland is Dublin airport, which serves numerous destinations across Europe and the US through the two main Irish airlines Aer Lingus (intercontinental and European travel) and Ryanair (European travel), and many other international airlines. There are almost hourly flights between Dublin and most of the London airports. From the Welcome Reception in Dublin on Sunday 17th May, we have arranged that buses will take participants to the conference venue, the Slieve Russell Hotel in Cavan. Travel by car is about 1.5-2 hours from Dublin to the hotel.

SCIENTIFIC ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Paula Benaglia, Alceste Bonanos, Alex Carciofi, Sylvia Ekström, Ana Gomez de Castro, Jose Groh, Claus Leitherer, Emily Levesque, Jonathan Mackey (co-chair), Fabrice Martins, Elena Rossi, Nicole St-Louis, Daniel Whalen, Naoki Yoshida, Jorick Vink (co-chair)

LOCAL ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Ioana Boian, Sean Brennan, Morgan Fraser, Anne Grace, Sam Green, Erin Higgins, Jonathan Mackey, Kate Maguire, Maria Moutzouri, John Regan

SCHOOL ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Eion Farrell, Erin Higgins, Jonathan Mackey, Andreas Sander, Jorick Vink