A New Zeal for Old Galaxies First Announcement Rotorua, New Zealand, 25-30th March 2007 If you are interested in this conference, please sign up for future announcements: http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/nz2007 Location -------- The conference will be held at the Conference Centre in Rotorua, New Zealand. Rotorua is a major tourist destination in NZ at the heart of the geothermal area. As well as geysers and boiling mud pools, it hosts several nearby lakes and scenic bush walks. There are numerous tourist activities from fast jet boating to Maori cultural shows. You may like to explore New Zealand and its spectacular scenery (http://www.newzealand.com/travel/) after the conference (Easter is 6-10th April 2007). Scientific Rationale -------------------- Recent evidence indicates that most stars formed before the Universe had reached half its current age; thus old stellar populations are the norm today. What is less certain is when these stars assembled into the galaxies we see today. Two observational approaches to studying the formation history of galaxies are: galactic archaeology of old stellar populations in the nearby universe and direct investigation of galaxy evolution with look-back time (near and far-field cosmology). This conference proposes to bring together the communities associated with these two complementary approaches. In additional, the Symposium will have a strong focus on theory to provide an overall understanding of the complex processes associated with galaxy formation and evolution. Key issues include: explaining the bimodality of galaxy populations, the physical processes that suppress star formation suppression in different environments, downsizing, the build up of stellar mass with time, the role of feedback and gas processes in star/galaxy formation, the epoch and role of reionisation in the Universe. The conference will be timely to review the recent results of large galaxy surveys from HST, Galex and Spitzer satellites to the first results from new telescopes (eg SALT, VISTA) and new instruments on existing telescopes (eg AAOMEGA, SCUBA 2). The conference will lay the ground-work for future surveys using telescopes such as JWST and LSST. The conference will be perhaps the largest Astronomy meeting ever held in New Zealand and the only one dedicated to extragalactic astronomy. It is appropriate that we celebrate old stellar populations and galaxy evolution in Beatrice Tinsley's native country. Scientific Topics ----------------- 1) Stellar Population Models 2) Globular Clusters 3) Galactic Archaeology 4) Environmental trends 5) Gas and Feedback Processes 6) Galaxy Formation Models 7) Galaxy Evolution with look-back time 8) Reionisation and the first objects Participation ------------- The conference will be limited to 125 participants. The conference registration fee will be around $NZ600 (~$US400), with a half fee waiver for students. The fee includes opening reception, morning and afternoon teas, daily lunch and conference dinner. Hotel accommodation is the responsibility of the participants (a range of hotels are given on our web page). Key dates --------- 1 June 2006 2nd announcement 15 Sept. 2006 Talk/poster abstracts due 1 Nov. 2006 Registration Fee due 1 Jan. 2007 Last fee refund date 25 March 2007 Opening Reception 26-30 March 2007 Conference starts Organisers ---------- SOC: Duncan Forbes (Chair, Swinburne), Warrick Couch (Swinburne, Australia), Jean Brodie (UCSC, USA), Eric Bell (Heidelberg, Germany), Jay Gallagher (Wisconsin, USA), Frazer Pearce (Nottingham, UK), Taddy Kodama (NAO, Japan), Rachel Somerville (Heidelberg, Germany), Peter Cottrell (Canterbury, NZ) and Claudia Mendes de Oliveira (UdSP, Brasil) LOC (Swinburne): Virginia Kilborn, Robert Proctor, Chris Fluke, Sarah Brough Please circulate this message to other interested colleagues. The conference second announcement will only be sent to those people who sign-up by 31 May 2006 on the conference web site: http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/nz2007 Duncan Forbes On behalf of the LOC/SOC