Virtual OPTICON Archival School using ESO and ALMA data

The Virtual OPTICON Archival School will take place from Saturday June 19 until Saturday June 26 using Microsoft Teams.

Are you interested in learning how to use ESO and ALMA archives? Would you like to learn how to reduce the data available in these archives? Are you interested in what kind of science you can do with the archival data? Would you like to know more about astrophysics using other messengers than electromagnetic radiation? If you answered yes to some or all of these questions, then this school is for you.

In this school you will do a science project using ESO or ALMA archival data. The project is planned and lead by an experienced tutor and (s)he will guide you through different steps in finding, retrieving, reducing and analysing data. You will work in a group of four students doing the project together. In the application you can indicate the wavelength regime (optical/IR or sub-mm) you are most interested in and also the general science topic (stellar astrophysics, star/planet formation, or extragalactic astrophysics). You will also will also have a discussion with the other group working on a similar science topic but using the other waveband (optical/IR or sub-mm). For example all the students and tutors working on stellar astrophysics will have a meeting together and discuss the particulars of optical/IR and sub-mm observations. This way you will also get familiar with the observations and methods at the other waveband.

The school will include lectures on the basics on the ESO and ALMA archive and data reduction, but the main emphasis is on hands'on work with your tutor.  There will also be general interest lectures on different aspects of multi-messenger astrophysics, including very high energy gamma-rays, neutrinos and gravitational waves.

The school is primarily meant for PhD students in Astronomy. MSc students in the late stages of their thesis work and young PostDocs can also be considered.

The deadline for applications was Friday 23 April 2021 and the applicants will be notified about the selection in late May.