from the September-October 2009 AAS Newsletter:
Division on Dynamical Astronomy (DDA)
40th Annual Meeting
The DDA held its 40th annual meeting in Virginia Beach on 2-5 May. This
time, the meeting was held back-to-back and at the same location with a
kindred conference, a Symposium of the International Astronomical Union,
"Relativity in Fundamental Astronomy: Dynamics, Reference Frames, and
Data Analysis." A few astronomers took advantage of this juxtaposition
and attended both meetings, but they were, for the most part, entirely
independent. Just over 90 astronomers registered for the DDA meeting,
and sessions were held on the usual wide range of dynamical topics,
including planet formation, rings, and extra-solar planets, galaxies,
black holes, and disk dynamics. Multiple sessions were devoted to
celestial mechanics and astrometry, and the final session focused on the
finer points of time scales.
2009 Brouwer Award
Each year, the DDA selects an outstanding dynamical astronomer to
receive the Dirk Brouwer Award. The 2009 award will go to Tim de Zeeuw,
Director General of European Southern Observatory.
The citation for this winner is posted on the DDA website.
Student Stipend
Awards
Every year, the DDA recognizes the talents of outstanding graduate
students and recognizes their scientific contributions to dynamical
astronomy by providing two "Student Stipend Awards". Each award covers
the cost of the registration fee and banquet fee, and contributes
significantly to the students' travel expenses. The awards are meant to
ease the financial burden of attending the DDA conference and to
encourage participation by talented potential future leaders in the
field. In 2009, the two winners were Julia (Julie) Comerford from UC
Berkeley (advisor: Marc Davis), who presented "The Dynamics of Black
Holes in Galaxy Mergers: A New Observational Technique for Identifying
Mergers," and Ashley Espy from University of Florida (advisor: Stanley
Dermott), who presented "A Dynamical Model of a Still-Forming Zodiacal
Dust Band as Constrained by IRAS Data."
We will solicit applications
for the next awards at the beginning of 2010.
Please direct any questions to Dr. Dimitri Veras.