URSI General Assembly and Science Symposium Istanbul, Turkey August Summary. Opening Ceremonies Sunday 14 August 2011

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1 URSI General Assembly and Science Symposium Istanbul, Turkey August 2001 Summary Opening Ceremonies Sunday 14 August 2011 News There were participants from 50-plus countries at the URSI GASS this year. About 34% came from the US and Japan (in spite of earthquake and tsunami). Participation from Arab countries was down because of the political unrest in those areas. There was a salute to the Young Scientists (35 years and younger). Some 100 Young Scientists from 34 countries received travel support for the meeting. There was a moment of silence for past prominent URSI General Assembly participants who have died since the last General Assembly in Chicago. This included Bill Gordon, Father of the Arecibo Observatory and Don Backer, International URSI Commission J Vice-Chair. URSI will initiate a collaboration with the International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS). ISPRS joins the six other International Unions that URSI collaborates (including the IAU). There is a proposal for a mid-term URSI Symposium as many things are happening in the Radio Science arena over a 3-year span. International URSI is good fiscal shape, thanks to the Chicago and Istanbul General Assemblies There is proposal to expand URSI into South Africa and into South America. Dr. George Uslenghi will be a member of the International URSI Board (about 6 members in total). Award Winners Balthasar van der Pol Gold Medal Prof. E. Heyman (Israel) For developing tools to analyze the generation, propagation, and scattering of beam-shaped electromagnetic field, and their engineering applications John Howard Dellinger Gold Medal Prof. Dave Staelin (MIT) For seminal contributions to the passive microwave remote sensing planetary atmospheres and the development of remote sensing of the atmosphere and environment of the Earth from space Accepted by Alan Rodgers as Dave wasn t able to attend because of health reasons. Appleton Prize Prof B. W. Reinisch (University of Massachusetts at Lowell) For revolutionizing radio science sounding from ground and space with development of Digisonde and the IMAGE/RPI satellite instrument, both essential data providers for space weather monitoring and ionospheric modeling Booker Gold Medal Prof. I. C. Daubechies (Duke University) For her outstanding contributions to mathematics, and in particular to wavelet theory, and for the remarkable impact of her work on a wide range of applied science disciplines

2 Issac Koga (Young Scientist) Gold Medal Prof. Andea Alu (University of Texas, Austin) Contributions to the analytical, numerical, and experimental study of printed antennas and phased arrays, and related problems in applied electromagnetics Commission J s Grote Reber Award Jocelyn Bell Burnell There was a full house for Jocelyn s presentation Reflections on the Discovery of Pulsars Notes Commission J Business Meeting #1 Monday 15 August 2011 News Ken Kellermann opened the meeting with a nice remembrance of the 19 prominent Commission-J members who passed away since the last triennium. This included, Bill Gordon, Father of the Arecibo Observatory and Don Backer, International URSI Commission J Vice-Chair. William Baan was elected to be the Commission-J Vice Chair for the next triennium. The Commissions-J budget was 12,000 Euros, all spent now, supporting Young Scientist and a few other items. Items for URSI Council (1) Attendance is 1,106 this year but, in general, attendance at the General Assemblies has been dwindling. This is due, in part, to the general global economic situation and political unrest. So the question as what could/should be done to increase attendance at these General Assemblies? (2) Is the current format too rigid and should it be changed? This led to a discussion on how the Poster Sessions could be improved. (3) Phil Wilkerson will be the URSI President for the next Triennium. As above, George Uslenghi will be a member of the International URSI Board (about 6 members in total). Resolutions (1) First of 2 Resolutions Provide free access by URSI members and members of radio scientists to the proceedings of previous scientific URSI Workshops and Symposia. (2) Second of 2 Resolutions Participation of Secretary General of URSI National Committees at the URSI Council. Presentations Presentation by Prof. Ohishi on IUCAF Activities IUCAF is the acronym for The Scientific Committee on Frequency Allocations for Radio Astronomy and Space Science. Purpose is to preserve the radio frequencies allocated to astronomy and passive space science and minimize interference to these scientific observations. IUCAF has 13 members 5 from URSI, 5 from IAU, 1 from COSPAR, and 2 Past Chairs. URSI, IAU, and COSPAR fund it with funds going for travel support. First concern is PLT Power Line Telecommunications, which impacts low-frequency radio astronomy. Second concern is GHz car (UWB) radars, which emit -6 dbm and can affect radio astronomy for up to a few 10- s of kilometers. IUCAF has sponsored Summer School; the last was in late May and early June which had 44 participants with 10 less than 35 years. IUCAF needs more young participants. There would be an open session on Friday.

3 Prof. Schilizzi gave a presentation on URSI s Long Rang Planning Committee. This committee, which was formed 6 years ago, promotes enhanced participation in URSI General Assemblies via items such as: * Maintaining a strong Young Scientist Award Program * Student Competitions at the General Assemblies * Travel Support for General Assemblies * Having each Commission Chair organize at least one special session in an emerging area. * Interacting with other societies for White Papers on special topics Proposed Emerging Areas were listed as: * Receiving Systems * Data Transport and Handling * Solar System and Space-based Radio Astronomy * Space Navigation and the Moon These Emerging Areas will be revisited at Friday s Commission-J Business Meeting. Discussion There was discussion noting that there has been a poor response for publications in Radio Science Bulletin. Since 2008, there has been one and only one Commission J paper. One problem is that publications in the Radio Science Bulletin aren t cite-able. Also, need volunteer(s) for Associate Editor of the Radio Science Bulletin. Commission-J presentations at this General Assembly 74 Oral 21 Observatory Reports 39 - Posters Commission J Business Meeting #2 -Wednesday -17 August 2011 Items for URSI Council (1) Country commissions can hold national meetings in between the General Assemblies - We in the US do this already. (2) Re publication of the General Assembly proceedings - It is OK for the commissions to publish their presentations on their own web-sites - It was noted here that posting the abstracts may have copyright issues as the extended abstracts will be published/posted by IEEE. Jaap Baars as our new Associate Editor of the Radio Science Bulletin noted we should form a committee to address how to raise the profile of the Radio Science Bulletin or just terminate the Proceedings. Suggested topics for future Commission-J contributions to the Radio Science Bulletin included: * Report of IUCAF technical Issues * LOWFAR Tutorial - Aaron Parsons

4 Commission J accepted the proposal to close out the Global Very-Long Baseline Working Group (GVWG). URSI Commission J has no other Working Groups There was a discussion of URSI Long Range Planning Issues - Basically repeating the possible topics that were discussed in Monday's Commission-J Business Meeting. There was a proposal to reform the Long Range Planning Committee with the following members: * Past Commission Chairs * URSI Board * Past and New URSI Presidents There was call for possible joint sessions with other commissions. These were: * Wide-Band Dual-Polarization Phased Arrays (Joint with C) * RFI Mitigations (joint with F) * Precise High Resolution Spectroscopy * Protection of Frequency Bands * Telecommunications (joint with F) * Microwave Transmission of Power (joint with H) There was a discussion on how to increase attendance in the URSI General Assemblies. Ideas brought forward were: * More Invited Talks on Hot Topics * Reduce the Registration Fee * Improve the Meeting Organization * Increase the Participation of Young Scientists Commission J Business Meeting #3 Friday 19 August 2011 The next URSI General Assembly will be in Beijing, China National Convention Center, no dates were given. Nominations for the Grote Reber Award for 2014 are now open Google Grote Reber or Grote Reber Award Next URSI General Assembly will have open time slots and/or special sessions on New Observations and Results. URSI Council agreed that it was okay for the commissions to publish their presentations on the URSI web-site, subject to presenter s permission. URSI Council asked for what went well and not so well at the General Assembly. Discussion here noted that Poster Sessions should be improved. This was the result that lunch food availability at the General Assembly site was limited and most people walked to near-by restaurants eating into time they could have spent at the posters. Other suggestions included serving beer and wine at the Poster Sessions and giving poster presenters the opportunity to show one slide in the appropriate session. Topics for Commission-J sessions at the next General Assembly were: * High-Frequency (mm and sub-mm) Radio Astronomy * Low-Frequency Radio Astronomy * Interferometers

5 * High Resolution Radio Spectrometry Topics for joint sessions with other Commission at the next General Assembly were: * Wide-Band Dual-Polarization Antennas and Phased Arrays * Data Transport, Handling and Analysis/High performance Computing * Handling Data Distortions from RFI and the Ionosphere * Space-based Radio-Science * RFI Protection of Frequency Bands and Radio Quiet Zones Jaap Baars, who volunteered to be an Associate Editor of the Radio Science Bulletin noted that (contrary to earlier reports this week) the Radio Science Bulletin is indexed and citable. Commission-J topics to be presented the URSI Council by Willem Baan were: * Had successful, well-attended sessions * The Grote Reber Award and Lecture * Dissolved the Global Very-Long Baseline Working Group (GVWG) and URSI Commission J has no other working groups * Candidate for Commission-J General Lecture * Proposal to improve the Poster Session * Open Session on New Observations and Results was a success Summary provided by Tommy Thompson