UK Solar Physics Newsletter Lyndsay Fletcher & Duncan Mackay, Editors January 15th 2008 o News, Views and Gossip o RAS THESIS PRIZES. o Nominations for STFC Science in Society Advisory Panel. o Suspended Solar Workshop: "New Physics in the Sun". o STFC budget crisis - report on RAS web site. o Westminster Hall debate on STFC. o STFC funding crisis Web Site. o Services/tools from the French data centres: FROMAGE and solar magnetic maps at BASS2000. o Services/tools from the French data centres: AMDA, a new visualization and integrated analysis tool for space physics multi-datasets at CDPP. o Services/tools from the French data centres: FESTIVAL, a new visualization and analysis tool for solar images at MEDOC. o Meetings, Conferences and Workshops o SPDSPS Summer School: Jul 7-11, 2008, Maui, Hawai'i. o UKMHD 2008. o International Summer School on Solar Polarization. o COSPAR session on Hinode and STEREO. o Employment Opportunities o Availability of Herchel Smith Postdoctoral Fellowships. o Post-doctoral position at the Royal Observatory of Belgium (Brussels). o UCLA Faculty Position in Solar Variability. o Additional Information on STFC Science in Society Advisory Panel. Dear Colleague, Here are a few items which have come to our attention since the last Newsletter. You can find this newsletter also at the UKSP website: http://www.uksolphys.org Lyndsay (lyndsay@astro.gla.ac.uk) Duncan (duncan@mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk) ********************************************************************* * * * News, Views and Gossip * * * ********************************************************************* From: "Walker, HJ (Helen)" The RAS awards 2 prizes annually: the Michael Penston and Keith Runcorn Prizes respectively for the best doctoral theses in astronomy/astrophysics and solar-system sciences/geophysics. Each prize, of 1000, is sponsored by Wiley-Blackwell and is administered by the RAS Higher Education Committee. Where appropriate, runners up are also recognized. For more information see: Michael Penston Prize: http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=35 Keith Runcorn Prize: http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=36 The award is open to students of all nationalities registered at Universities in the United Kingdom and is not restricted to Fellows of the RAS. The winner of the prize, normally, will be invited to give a short presentation on their thesis to an Ordinary Meeting of the Society. Nominations for this year's award are now invited and must be received by the Executive Secretary by 31st January 2008. ************************************ From: "Tina Henderson (STFC,SPO)" The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) seeks nominations now for membership of a new Science in Society Advisory Panel. The Panel will advise the Council on policies, strategies and programme balance for its programme of public engagement with science and technology. (Three provisional objectives of the work are: to stimulate and respond to public interest in current research and technology developments; to engage teachers and young people with science through the inspirational value and excitement of STFC work; and to encourage & support researchers in their public engagement work). Detailed draft terms of reference are listed below. Professor Mike Edmunds (STFC Council and Cardiff University) has been appointed Chair of this Panel. Membership of the SiS Advisory Panel will be drawn from nominations received as a result of this call, plus certain selected national experts (see para 6 below). The combined sifting/selection group for membership will be Professor Edmunds, Professor John Womersley (STFC Director Science Strategy) and Dr Robin Clegg (STFC Head of SiS). Membership will be for an initial period of two years, with possibility of extension. General principles concerning appointments are detailed at on the STFC website at www.scitech.ac.uk/SciProg/Plan/Plandocs/NomsProcessWeb3htm.aspx To nominate yourself or a colleague Nominations should be a maximum of one page in length and should set out the nominee's area of science/technology expertise and current activity, current position, track record, any special expertise and special interests in public engagement, relevant experience on groups, committees, partnerships or Boards, and any known conflicts of interest. Please ensure the nominee is aware of and agrees to the nomination. Please send nominations by Friday 25 January 2008 at the latest to Chris Woolford, Science in Society Team, Science & Technology Facilities Council, Polaris House, Swindon, SN2 1SZ, Tel 01793 442098, email Chris.Woolford@stfc.ac.uk and who is an initial point of contact to discuss any issues about the Panel. (A high-level review body, the Education and Public Outreach Advisory Committee, is described in the document below. EPOAC membership will be drawn from senior national experts). [Additional Information on the Science in Society Advisory Panel can be found at the end of the new letter - Editors]. ************************************* >From : Stella Malaroda Suspended Solar Workshop: "New Physics in the Sun" We are sorry to inform that the Solar Workshop "New Physics in the Sun" will not take place next February. We will inform the new dates in a near future. ************************************* From: MICHAEL HAPGOOD STFC budget crisis - report on RAS web site Dear collegaues, As many of you know an ad-hoc group of senior astronomers met with Keith Mason on 9 January. A report of that meeting is now available at http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1388&Itemid=1 Best regards, Mike ************************************* From: MICHAEL HAPGOOD Westminster Hall debate on STFC You may be interested to know that there is a short debate on STFC planned for 15 January. See http://www.parliament.uk/about_commons/speakers_office/tadjourns.cfm See the Parliament web site for more info on how the House of Commons runs Westminster Hall debates. Cheers, Mike ************************************* From: Paul Crowther Dear SCAP members, the particle physics community are being updated on the STFC funding crisis via a webpage of Mark Lancaster in UCL's HEP group. In the absence of any other initiatives from the astronomy community (beyond the Save Sstronomy website), I have attempted to provide a similar conduit for information more directly relevant to our community at http://pacrowther.staff.shef.ac.uk/stfc.html which interested colleagues may wish to consult. For example, the actual cuts to the number of funded post-docs will be significantly *worse* than the headline 25% figure. I intend to update this page regularly with briefing material, press coverage etc whilst avoiding the highly critical language used in a number of anonymous blogs. I will endeavour to include links to any relevant material that you care to pass on. Note that the Commons select ctte is undertaking an inquiry into the science budget on 21 Jan, with evidence provided by RAS, IoP etc, available live via Parliament TV. Regards, Paul ************************************* From: Frederic Paletou Services/tools from the French data centres: FROMAGE and solar magnetic maps at BASS2000 BASS 2000 is the archive of the THeMIS solar telescope. We remind here that all data which is more than one-year old become public. Backward reduction of spectropolarimetric data (MTR@THeMIS) can be done, upon request, using the standard reduction package SQUV (cf. Sainz Dalda & Lopez Ariste 2007,A&A, 469, 721) developed by the THeMIS team. On-line query tools are available @ http://bass2000.bagn.obs-mip.fr/Query /index.php. Since June 2007, vector magnetic field maps are available on-line@ http://bass2000.bagn.obs-mip.fr/pagef3.html. Users will be gently asked to be identified for the sake of traceability. Another service aka. FROMAGE proposes extrapolations of vector magnetic field data taken at the photospheric level up to the corona (see contact page @ http://www.dasop.obspm.fr/fromage/). The Observatoire de Paris-Meudon BASS 2000 archive is dedicated to systematic observations. You can find there full Sun observations in Halpha disk and prominences, Ca II K1 disk, Ca II K3 disk and prominences. Data are available on line for a full Solar cycle. It proposes since summer 2007 on-line images of the new CLIMSO coronograph installed at Pic du Midi (see for a direct access @ http://bass2000.obspm.fr/home.php?lang=en). An up-to-date description of the organization, tasks, products and projects of BASS 2000 can be found at http://arxiv.org/abs/0712.2421 ************************************* From: Christian Jacquey Services/tools from the French data centres: AMDA, a new visualization and integrated analysis tool for space physics multi-datasets at CDPP. AMDA (Automated Multi Dataset Analysis, http://cdpp-amda2.cesr.fr/ ) is a service dedicated to the integrated analysis of multi-dataset of in situ plasma and field measurements obtained in the solar wind and the earth magnetosphere. This tool, reachable through the internet, provides automated access to a various data sets including some key-parameters of ACE, WIND, GEOTAIL, POLAR, INTERBALL, IMP-8, ISEE, prime parameters of CLUSTER and DoubleSTAR and L2 data from THEMIS. Through a intuitive interface, the users can generate multi-dataset plots, produce/download merged data and perform computation on them. The user can also perform search on the content both interactively (visual event selection) or in batch mode by editing mathematical filters on the content of the data. The results consist of event lists which can be re-used in AMDA for performing successive conditional searches, for producing user edited plots or for extracting sub-databases corresponding to specific criteria on the data content. The web-services offered by the CDAWeb (http://cdaweb.gsfc.nasa.gov/cdaweb/, Spase Physics Data Facility, NASA) have been integrated in such a way that the full CDAWeb archive is usable by the AMDA tools. This service is presently in testing phase and should be opened to public in early 2008. Up-coming developments includes (i) the construction of a SPASE (http://www.spase-group.org/) interface which will allow AMDA to be used by the Virtual Observatories based on SPASE and (ii) the integration of STEREO and planetary (VEX, MEX) data. AMDA is a public service realised at the CDPP (Centre de Données de Physique des Plasmas), national centre for natural plasma data, hosted at CESR, Toulouse (France). AMDA is financially supported by both the CNRS and the CNES. Contact: amda@cesr.fr ************************************* From: Frederic Auchere Services/tools from the French data centres: FESTIVAL, a new visualization and analysis tool for solar images at MEDOC. FESTIVAL (http://www.ias.u-psud.fr/stereo/festival/) is an IDL-based browser designed for visualization of solar imaging data with the possibility to overlay context information. FESTIVAL currently supports SECCHI, EIT SOHO, LASCO SOHO, Nancay RH and MkIV images and works with FITS files installed locally on your computer. It automatically builds dynamic composite images of the Sun as seen from SOHO /Earth or from the two STEREO probes by interpreting the information stored in the FITS headers (plate scale, roll angle, position of the Sun, etc.). The composites preserve the native resolution of all the instruments, and you can zoom in and out in them (much like with Google Earth) to explore the full range of angular scales covered by the instruments: from the arcsecond (EUVI/EIT) to tens of degrees (HI1/HI2), all at the click of a button. In a few steps you can create a whole day's worth of EIT/MkIV/C2/C3 composite images, overlay coordinate grids (Carrington, Stonyhurst, etc.), apply a very large range of filters for enhancement, and save them as images (i.e. jpeg, postscript, etc.) or as an avi movie for a presentation. FESTIVAL is also compatible with many 3D displays used to visualize STEREO data. FESTIVAL is open source and users are welcome to contribute. Possible contributions could be the addition of more analysis tools, support for more instruments, or more overlays (e.g. magnetic field extrapolations, catalogs of features/events, comet tracks...) All contributions are duly mentioned in the FESTIVAL credits to ensure proper recognition of your work. Please contact Elie Soubrie (elie.soubrie@ias.u-psud.fr) if you are interested in contributing. FESTIVAL is a collaborative project managed by MEDOC (http://www.ias.u-psud.fr /medoc) at IAS, Orsay (France) and financially supported by CNES. ********************************************************************* * * * Conferences, Workshops, Meetings * * * ********************************************************************* From: Ilia Roussev The Solar Physics Division (SPD) of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) announces its third summer school in solar physics, which will be devoted to the Solar Atmosphere and Its Dynamics. The school is being organized jointly with the Solar Physics Section (SPS) of the Joint Astrophysics Division (JAD) of the European Physical Society (EPS) and the European Astronomical Society (EAS), and it will be held at the new Advanced Technology Research Center (ATRC) of the Institute for Astronomy (IfA) on Maui during Jul 7-11, 2008. The summer school aims to provide an in-depth introduction to the solar atmosphere and its dynamics, as inferred from modern observations, theory, and numerical modeling. An essential part of the school curriculum is to enable students to gain hands-on experience with various aspects of solar physics research from collecting data of coronal magnetic fields at the Haleakala observatory to numerical modeling of dynamic processes in the solar corona. The students will design and obtain their own coronal measurements. The solar research programs at the IfA have developed, and continue to develop, breakthrough technology for advancing our understanding of the structure and dynamics of the Sun, such as the Imaging Vector Magnetograph (IVM), SOLARC, and the future Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST). These observational programs are complemented with a self-sustaining numerical modeling effort within the solar group of the IfA. Thus, the research agenda of the IfA provides the necessary grounds on which to accomplish the objectives of this summer school. The summer school agenda will include the following topics: (i) Observing and Understanding the Solar Atmosphere (Day 1); (ii) Observations of Magnetic Fields in the Solar Atmosphere: Present and Future (Day 2); (iii) Dynamic Processes in the Solar Atmosphere (Day 3); (iv) Solar Wind and Inner Heliosphere (Day 4); and (v) Connecting Our Understanding of the Solar Atmosphere with Other Stars (Day 5). The lecturers at the school will be: Tahar Amari (Ecole Polytechnique, France), Gene Avrett (Center for Astrophysics, USA), Markus Aschwanden (Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center, USA), Shadia Habbal (Institute for Astronomy, USA), Rolf Kudritzki (Institute for Astronomy, USA), Jeff Kuhn (Institute for Astronomy, USA), Haosheng Lin (Institute for Astronomy, USA), Daniel Mueller (European Space Agency), Matt Penn (National Solar Observatory, USA), Stefaan Poedts (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium), John Raymond (Center for Astrophysics, USA), and Ilia Roussev (Institute for Astronomy, USA). The summer school is being funded by NASALWS, NSF, and ESA. Approximately 18 scholars (chosen from graduate students through first-year postdoctoral fellows) will be selected through a competitive process to participate in the school. Preference in the selection process, however, will be given to graduate students. Former SPD summer school graduates will have lower priority. There will be no tuition fee to attend the school, and selected students will receive financial support for travel, accommodation, and meals. At most 3 students with their own funding can be accepted to attend the school. A successful candidate should have: * A major in physics with an emphasis on astrophysics or solar physics; and, * A plan to pursue a career in solar physics. Application materials should comprise: * A cover letter briefly stating the motivation for application; * Curriculum Vitae with a list of publications (if any), technical reports, and professional presentations; * Names and addresses of three references (one must be the student's advisor); and * Academic transcripts. The application materials should be mailed to Ilia Roussev, Institute for Astronomy, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA. E-mail inquiries should be sent to . The deadline for submission of applications is March 15, 2008. Further details about the summer school can be found at . ********************************************* From: David Tsiklauri The website for UKMHD 2008 is now live. Please visit http://space.cse.salford.ac.uk/ukmhd2008/ for more information. Important Information * Registration/Abstract Submission will open on 10th March 2008. * Closing date for registration/abstract submission - 16th May 2008. * Programme Posted on Web - 23rd May 2008. Meeting Topics: * Solar interior (including flows) / Solar dynamo / Tachocline physics/ Helioseismology * MHD processes in relation to all aspects of waves (both heating and coronal seismology) and magnetic reconnection in the solar atmosphere * General MHD processes (including industrial MHD) * Solar wind / Coronal Mass Ejections / Flares * Beyond MHD: which terms in the generalized Ohms law do matter? * ... this list is not exhaustive ... constructive suggestions are welcome! ********************************************* From: Zhongquan Qu International Summer School on Solar Polarization First Announcement of International Summer School on Solar Polarization Magnetic fields play a pervasive role in all astrophysical plasmas and govern most of the variability in the universe at intermediate time scales, in particular all activity phenomena on the Sun and stars. Polarization measurements allow us to diagnose the magnetic fields. Therefore the understanding of solar polarization and its measurement has become a central topic in contemporary solar physics. With recent advances in imaging spectro-polarimetry that have led to the discovery of new polarization phenomena with novel diagnostic possibilities, the field of solar polarization has virtually exploded. In view of these developments an International Summer School on Solar Polarization is being organized by Yunnan Astronomical Observatory, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and sponsored by the National Scientific Foundation of China (NSFC). Two main lecturers have accepted to give the course: Prof. Dr. J.O. Stenflo (Institute of Astronomy, ETH Zurich, Switzerland) will give a series of lectures on the theory of solar polarization, systematically covering topics from the fundamental concepts to advanced techniques at the frontiers of current research. Prof. Dr. C.U. Keller (Astronomical Institute, Utrecht University, The Netherlands) will give a series of lectures on instrumentation for solar polarization measurements, from the properties of different polarization optics, to the design and test of advanced polarimeters. The lectures will be accompanied by discussion and exercise classes. Students and active scientists from all over the world are welcome to take part in this Summer School. Time will also be provided for oral presentations by the participants on any topic relevant to the subject of solar and stellar polarization. We encourage all the participants to use this opportunity to present their ideas and scientific results. A two-day excursion will take place in the region around the Bamboo Sea. Details about the program can be found one month after the issue of this announcement on the website www.ynao.ac.cn Duration: 12-24 July 2008 (6 days before the total solar eclipse in China) Place: The Bamboo Sea (['dzu'hai], Chinese pronounciation), Changning ['tsa:K'niK] county, Sichuan Province, China. LOC: Dr. Zhongquan Qu (zqqu@ynao.ac.cn, zqqu@vip.km169.net, Chair), Dr. Kejun Li, Dr. Zhi Xu, Dr. Chenglin Xu, Dr.Hongfei Liang, Xiaoyu Zhang, Shuhua Zhong and Xiaoli Yan. ********************************************** From: Janet Luhmann COSPAR session on Hinode and STEREO Abstracts Solicitation for COSPAR Session D22_E32: New Views of the Sun-Earth Connection: Multispacecraft Imaging and In-situ Observations Janet Luhmann and Len Culhane, session organizers This COSPAR session will feature new results from the Hinode and STEREO missions, with special emphasis on observations of the evolution and eruption of active regions, and their coronal and interplanetary consequences. Papers using complementary observations from ground-based facilities and/or other spacecraft along with modeling results relevant to the interpretation of both the STEREO and Hinode observations, are also encouraged. Topics of invited presentations will include: - Active regions observed with Hinode XRT - On-disc signatures of eruptive activity: Broad perspective - Observations of CME/ICME events seen by STEREO - Models of STEREO and Hinode CMEs - Quiet Solar Wind Sources: the IHY Whole Sun Month II Study - Quiet Solar Wind Insights from STEREO Multipoint Observations - Hinode results on the Solar magnetic field - The global view of the solar magnetic field during the STEREO and Hinode missions The 37th COSPAR Meeting will be held in Montreal 13-20 July, 2008. Abstracts are due February 17 at the COSPAR website www.cospar-assembly.org Questions about this session can be addressed to the organizers via jgluhman(at)ssl.berkeley.edu *********************************************************************** * * * Positions Vacant * * * *********************************************************************** From: "John C. B. Papaloizou" Herchel Smith Postdoctoral Fellowships The University is advertising nine Herchel Smith Postdoctoral Fellowships, e.g. see http://www.jobs.ac.uk/jobs/JO988/Herchel_Smith_Postdoctoral_Research_Fellowships_Nine_posts/ to be taken up on 1 October 2008, each Fellowship to be 2-3 years in duration. Closing date for applications is 17th January 2008. It is intended that one Fellowship be held in DAMTP and the field 'Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics' has been included in the advertisement. These Fellowships give generous research support and are intended to be highly competitive, e.g. comparable to Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowships. The normal conditions are that Fellows will be within three years of PhD on taking up the Fellowship and will not be PhD graduates of Cambridge or Harvard. ******************************************** From: Christophe MARQUE Post-doctoral position at the Royal Observatory of Belgium (Brussels) The Solar Influences Data analysis Center (SIDC) at the Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB) opens a post-doctoral position for two years to study and model coronal shock wave signatures linked to eruptive events like flares and CMEs. Experience in multi-wavelength data processing (Halpha, EUV, radio ...), and willingness to model the observed events is important for this job. The selected candidate will work in close collaboration with researchers from ROB, but this project involves as well international partners who will provide coordinated observations and experience. The ROB is a Belgian Federal institute in the southern green outskirts of Brussels. The SIDC is a research group of about 25 researchers and technicians from many nationalities. English is the baseline language spoken within the team. Salary, social security and pension scheme are set according to Belgian civil servant rules. Funding is available for travel and small expenses. This postdoctoral position is to start beginning of 2008 and it will stay opened until it is filled. Applications and/or questions should be sent to: Christophe Marque: christophe.marque@oma.be And/Or David Berghmans: david.berghmans@oma.be ******************************************** From: Lynne Engstrom UCLA Faculty Position in Solar Variability As part of the Geosciences Initiative at UCLA, candidates are sought for a tenure track faculty position in Solar Variability and its consequences for Earth and the rest of the heliosphere. Candidates with research interests in the solar dynamo, the regular 22 year magnetic cycle, longer-period fluctuations, and the sudden, episodic eruption of coronal mass ejections and flares from the surface of the Sun as our nearest star and as a paradigm for stellar variability elsewhere are encouraged to apply. Applications should include a curriculum vitae, publication list, short statement of teaching and research interests, names of four or more individuals familiar with the applicant's work who could be contacted for letters of reference, and three publications. Applications and inquiries should be directed to Faculty_Positions@igpp.ucla.edu or Faculty Positions, Institute of Geophysics and Space Physics, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567 prior to January 31, 2008, but later application may also be considered. Women and minority applicants are encouraged to apply. UCLA is an equal opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. *********************************************************************** * * * Additional Information on STFC Science in Society Advisory Panel * * * *********************************************************************** A SCIENCE IN SOCIETY ADVISORY PANEL Introduction and purpose 1. The Council under its Royal Charter is mandated "in relation to the activities [STFC science, technology, engineering and maths programmes] and in such manner as the Council may see fit: to generate public awareness; to communicate research outcomes; to encourage public engagement and dialogue; to disseminate knowledge; and to provide advice." 2. The Council will have a programme of public engagement with its science and technology. The programme is led by the Science in Society team, located in the Council's Science Programme Office, but involves many staff across STFC, and there will be strong liaison with Corporate Communications Division (for example, on media work) and with the outreach work of the facilities and units at STFC laboratories. DRAFT Terms of Reference 3. The SiS Advisory Panel will advise the Executive, Council, and Science Board on positioning, priorities, and high-level objectives for a science in society programme, and on policies and strategies to achieve the objectives. It is expected to bring `best practice' to STFC's public engagement work, for the benefit of the programme. It will receive reports from the Executive on SiS programme elements and their impact, and will advise on the development of metrics and the evaluation of the programme. The Panel will take into account, and can advise on, the RCUK and BNSC partnerships in which STFC is a member. 4. The areas of concern for the Panel will be Communication of STFC science, technology, engineering and maths (`STEM') work to public audiences Support and policy-setting regarding researchers' outreach work, including advising on outreach policies connected with research grants, projects, studentships and Fellowships Engaging schools, teachers and young people with STFC's STEM work Strategies for delivering such work, including funding and strategic partnerships Advising on outreach work and partnerships for STFC laboratories and experiments, including ISIS, Central Laser Facility, Synchrotron Radiation Source, etc, to include advising on raising the visibility of the science and technology work there; and advising on best practice for facilities in which STFC has involvement, such as the Diamond Light Source in the UK and the international agencies and facilities (CERN, ESA, ESO, ESRF, ILL) Advising on public engagement with the work of the science and innovation campuses and with commercial applications of STFC work Advising on the budget and resource for the SiS programme and on the balance of activities and resource across the SiS programme Advising on techniques and methods of science communications and public engagement, including traditional and new media Advising on any societal issues raised by STFC programmes and how to handle them, including public consultations, debates, etc Advising on useful metrics for monitoring and evaluating the impact of SiS programme elements, and on evaluation policies Position 5. The Panel will report to STFC Science Board regarding the programme and the budget for Science in Society activities. It will also contribute to the work of Council and the Executive in setting STFC priorities, including through the production of annual plans and reports. A Council advisory group, the Education and Public Outreach Advisory Committee, will occasionally commission high-level reviews of the societal impact that STFC is making, and may seek data or reports from the Panel and its secretariat. Peer-review groups which recommend funding through announced schemes will report to the Panel. The Panel's Secretariat will be located in STFC Science Programmes Office. Membership . There will be a Chair plus up to twelve members. Membership will be drawn from the following groups or sectors: researchers with an interest in science in society/outreach issues who are active in any of the areas of science or technology supported by the Council, or who are users of the Council's facilities expertise in UK science communications issues expertise in science education at school and college level science centres and museums sector mass media and new media science communications theory, including research and science and technology studies expertise in outreach programmes from major UK (or international) laboratories, including public engagement with technology or engineering aspects of their work Working Groups 7. The Panel may set up Working Groups to study specific issues. These will report back to the Panel. Meetings 8. The Panel will normally have 2-3 one- or half-day meetings per year. STFC staff, including SiS managers, will be in attendance regularly. In-house staff scientists and engineers and outreach leaders for experiments and facilities will be in attendance as needed for the agenda items under discussion. Robin Clegg, STFC, January 2007