Faculty Chair

1
Faculty Chair

• Markus Kissler was elected by the Faculty in
  October and will start 1 January 2007
• Bob Fosbury will step down after three years as
  chair

2
Elections

• Three complaints were received
• only one candidate
• ballots not anonymous electronic ballots
• definition of majority
• (was also given as a reason for several non-votes)

3
Fellowships

• We received 116 applications
• 31 for Chile, 62 for Garching, 23 without
  preference
• Selection in Chile finished ? list forwarded to
  the DG
• Selection for Garching to be finished tomorrow
• Offers shall be made before Christmas
• Marina Rejkuba will take over the FSSC chair in
  Garching as of 1 January 2007

4
Mentoring

• Scientists need multiple mentors, at multiple
  levels, within and outside astronomy. Senior
  people should mentor young researchers, and
  young researchers should seek out mentors
  themselves. Some of the most effective mentoring
  is from one peer to another. One concern is that
  some astronomers are prejudiced against
  mentoring, believing it is a sign of weakness if
  needed, but this may stem from a misunderstanding
  of what mentoring should be. Simply put, mentors
  provide information and career support. The
  former includes explaining formal and informal
  rules of the game, giving advice on strategic
  career moves, offering an informal evaluation of
  the junior scientist against the established
  criteria for advancement, and acting as a
  scientific advisor (only) if asked. Mentoring is
  not "telling someone what to do" or "giving them
  science projects!"
• The second aspect of mentoring, career support,
  means suggesting the mentored colleague for
  talks, prizes, and honors, as appropriate
  recommending her/him to colleagues in casual
  conversation as well as when letters of
  recommendation are requested and offering
  resources, where possible and appropriate. It is
  surprising how frequently senior astronomers
  assume (wrongly) that mentoring means directing a
  colleagues scientific research! The confusion
  about mentoring clearly shows the need for
  training in how to mentor.
• Patricia Knezek and Meg Urry, AAS Newsletter,
  Dec. 2003

5
DGDF

• We received 41 proposals
• 21 Chile and 20 Garching
• The evaluation by the committee is done ?
  forwarded to DG for decision
• Notifications before Christmas

6
Visitors to Garching

• There are places for scientific visitors to
  ESO/Garching
• Please check out the manifesto of the visitor
  programme at http//www.eso.org/science/visitors/i
  ndex.html
• Contact Harald Kuntschner for more information

7
IMPRS

• The IMPRS selection for students is open again.
  Should you be interested in having a student get
  in touch with Marina Rejkuba (see her email from
  8. December)
• Information on the IMPRS can be found at
  http//www.imprs-astro.mpg.de/
• Update your PhD thesis topics on the Web site!

8
Excellence Cluster in Munich

• As part of the German initiative for excellence
  in research a large collaboration between TUM and
  LMU concentrating on
• Origin and Structure of the Universe
  (http//universe.physik.tu-muenchen.de/)
• was funded (PIs Stephan Paul, TUM, and Andy
  Burkert, LMU)
• The excellence cluster will be based on the
  Garching Campus
• (ESO contacts M. Kissler-Patig, B. Leibundgut)

9
Office move

• ESO needs more offices
• possibly the Office for Science (together with
  parts of other divisions) will have to move to
  the north of the campus (near U-Bahn station)