Winter School on Astronomy

A five-day winter school on astronomy for senior undergraduate students and MSc level graduate students. Target students are aspiring astronomers or astronomy enthusiasts that are enrolled in other programs. Hands-on workshops will be emphasized and along with lectures delivered by leading practitioners in the field. Only 70 spaces are open to students from all countries.

 

This is an inclusive winter school that emphasizes regional and gender equity and encourages cultural exchange and awareness between students from different countries. We value the role of informal interactions among participants and the consequent mentoring of students by senior scientists. Career counseling discussion groups are also organized.

 

This is one of the largest astronomy winter schools in the region, and it seeks to promote the development of professional astronomers through this event, as well as broaden the appeal of science to local school students and the general public in the host city by organizing public lectures and discussions.

 

A key highlight of the previous winter schools was the interaction amongst participants, leading to a wider and in-depth dialogue on astronomy. Students appreciate the opportunity to have informal discussions with leading scientists outside of the lecture hall. This element is often missing at their home colleges. Articles describing the past schools are available at http://astrowin.uwo.ca

 

Astrowin19 will deliver a five-day intense crash course on astronomy with various hands-on workshops covering the latest developments in the field of astrophysics. The objective of Astrowin19 is primarily to inspire students to take up careers in astronomy. Basu and Ojha are established researchers working in the areas of star formation and protoplanetary disks. Parameswaran is an established researcher in the area of gravitational wave astronomy. Sidharth is a well-acclaimed cosmologist and theoretical physicist.

 

The organizers seek out up to a few select scientists to be primary lecturers at the school and also participate in content development. A series of secondary lecturers will also be invited, and the diversity of speakers are emphasized. Hands-on sessions will include theory, computation, and data analysis. Students will leave the school having replicated some of the analysis that went into recent discoveries of gravitational waves, interpreted observational data from stellar clusters, and ran a simple computer simulation of star formation. A visit and half-day mini-workshop at the TIFR National Balloon Facility, Hyderabad, where we will do some demonstration of scientific ballooning for astronomical observations.

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