Contact Information

• 2006-June-7 15:00 UT
• Duration: 1 hr
• USA Toll Free Number: 877-874-1919
• Toll Number: +1-203-320-9891
• Passcode: 185064
• Leader: Al Wootten

Old Business

1. Agenda, Minutes: Agenda of May meeting.

Agenda and Minutes of older telecons may be viewed at the ALMA EDM site Sitescape or more recently at the Board ASAC site.

New Business

The contract for the interior finish on the completed AOS TB shell has been signed!

1. Project news/updates
   • Operations, funding, upcoming Board meeting (Tarenghi)
     • 12 May Major Actions and Approvals at the May 10, 2006 National Science Board (NSF/US) Meeting "The Board authorized the Director, at his discretion, to increase the spending authority for the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) under cooperative agreement AST-0223851 and its successor agreements to extend the duration of the award through September 30, 2012."
   • Construction progress (Beasley)
   • ALMA Safety Requirements
2. Board Communications
   • New Charges. The Board, in Kyoto, approved the revised charge for the next ASAC meeting as follows:
     • The ASAC is requested to consider the following topics, and to make recommendations to the Board that include your priority or time scale where your recommendations require expenditure of ALMA's fixed resources:
       • 1. Review the revised Commissioning and Science Verification Plan for ALMA
       • 2. Review the revised Calibration Plan for ALMA
       • 3. Review the existing work on developing complete descriptions of the ALMA observing modes (e.g. software, hardware etc.) and make recommendations as to their relative priority
       • 4. Any other matters that you want to bring to the Board's attention.
   • Board meeting in Santiago
     • Items from previous ASAC Reports to the Board with current relevance
       • Project Scientist (Hamilton, September 2003): "Regarding the Project Scientist position, the ASAC reaffirmed its view that recruitment for this post should be restarted, and it felt that the role should be primarily instrument-focused rather than community-focused."
       • Science Verification period (Charlottesville, September 2004): "The ASAC recommends that demonstration science and the first call for proposals afterwards, which together define early science, should not be started too soon. Careful management of expectations is needed, since the early ALMA will have a performance very far from the final observatory (Charge 4/5). "
   • Face to face meeting place and time (r1.44).
     • The Board has approved a meeting in Florence 16-17 September.
   • Dates of Board Meetings 2006
3. Science IPT Report (Wilson, Wootten, Kawabe)
   • Science IPT Current schedule
   • ALMA Science IPT wiki page
   • Science Requirements Document is in yet another final review; the Board would like ASAC approval.
4. Outreach
   • Astronomer Outreach: ALMA Video Podcast; NRAO Newsletter ESO Newsletter. NRAO ALMA Calendar
   • ALMA at the IAU sessions of special interest.
   • ESAC Report (Testi)
   • ANASAC Report (Carilli)
   • JSAC Report (Yamamoto)
   • Madrid Meeting -- (Cernicharo)
5. AOB
6. Next Meeting 2006-July-5 15:00 UT suggested.

Science Corner:

Calendar

Official JAO Calendar

Events of Interest

(see also Al's ALMA Biweekly Calendar)

2005
Day	Date	Time (EST)	Event	location	details
Mon-Tues	24-5 April	all day	ALMA SRR Followup Meeting	Garching	CV-230
Thurs	27 April	1330amUT	ALMA Board	Telecon	TBD
Fri	28 April	2pm EDT	ANASAC	Telecon	TBD
Tues-Weds	13-14 June 2006	all day	ALMA Board Meeting	Santiago	TBD
Thurs-Fri	9-10 November 2006	all day	ALMA Board Meeting	Madrid	TBD

Upcoming Meetings

Complex Molecules in Space: present status and prospects with ALMA May 7 to 11, 2006, Fuglsoecentret, near Aarhus, Denmark

SPIE 24-31 May, Orlando, Florida

Making the Most of the Great Observatories, 22-24 May, Hilton, Pasadena Carilli will be ALMA Speaker

The Red Rectangle 23-25 May 2006 - Charlottesville VA, USA

ALMA Special SessionAAS/CASCA 4-8 June, Calgary

Coalition for National Science Funding Hill Exhibition 7 June, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington

61st OSU International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy, June 19-23, 2006, Columbus Ohio USA

The fate of gas in galaxies July 12-14, 2006 ASTRON, Dwingeloo,

IAU XXVI General Assembly Prague, 14-25 August 2006 Sessions of Particular ALMA Interest

• Astronomical Facilities of the Next Decade Prague 16-17 August
• IAU SYMPOSIUM No. 235: EVOLUTION OF GALAXIES ACROSS THE HUBBLE TIME Prague 14 - 17 August 2006
• IAU SYMPOSIUM No. 237: TRIGGERED STAR FORMATION IN A TURBULENT ISM Prague 14 - 18 August 2006
• The Universe at z>6 Prague 17-18 August
• Division X meetings. On Observatories: 1600 on 18 August
• New Cosmology Results from Spitzer Prague 22 - 23 August
• There will be an ALMA booth near ESO and NRAO displays.

RADIATION BACKGROUNDS FROM THE FIRST STARS, GALAXIES AND BLACK HOLES 9-11 October, 2006, College Park, Md

Science with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) II November 13-16; Madrid, Spain

Astrophysical Masers and their Environments 2007 March 12-16, Alice Springs, Australia

50th anniversary of the founding of NRAO POSTPONED; Charlottesville, Virginia

See also NAASC listing

-- AlWootten - 05 Jun 2006