Conference Service Mandl

abstract: The International Seminar "Quarks-2010" is organized by the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences. "Quarks-2010" is the sixteenth in the series of seminars taking place every two years since 1980 in various historical and cultural places of Russia. The coming Seminar will take place near Kolomna, about 100km southeast of Moscow. Despite of the Seminar's traditional name, the program of "Quarks-2008" is fairly broad and includes plenary sessions, meetings at sections and informal discussions on various problems of quantum field theory and particle physics. We expect that about 150 physicists will participate in the Seminar.

abstract: Recent programs of site selection for large telescopes, needs to support adaptive optics and interferometry, and studies of Antarctic sites created a large momentum in this field. The progress is fast, new results are coming almost weekly. Recent conferences on this subject (2007, 2008) demonstrated great interest of the community, hence the need for a new meeting. The proposed schedule (fall 2010) relates to the completion of the major programs (TMT, E-ELT, GMT), with lessons from these efforts to be learned by others. The appearance of the MASS method in 2000 played a significant role in the current developments, and now, 10 years later, it is the good time to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses and to outline future directions. The group of V.Kornilov is pivotal in MASS development. The conference will be located close to the robotic Caucasus site-testing station developed by SAI and will highlight the work of this group. The proximity of the Russian 6-m telescope and touristic attractions of the Caucasus region will favor an entertaining and informative cultural program for this conference. Unlike previous recent conferences, this meeting will cover all aspects of site monitoring for optical/IR astronomy. The meeting will define the most promising techniques for measuring water vapor content, dust, light pollution, etc.