27th International School for Young Astronomers (ISYA)

Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco

 July 02-23, 2004

 

 

Short Final Report 

 

The 27th International School for Young Astronomers took place at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane (AUI), Morocco, under the auspice of Mr. Rachid Benmokhtar Benabdellah, President of Al Akhawayn University.

 

This ISYA was organized after that a fist “Teaching for Astronomy Development” (TAD) program has been running since 1999 at the University Hassan II in Casablanca. During the ISYA opening ceremony, a second TAD agreement has been signed between the International Astronomical Union (IAU) represented by its general secretary Dr. Oddbjorn Engvold and AUI presented by its President Mr. Rachid Benmokhtar Benabdellah. Dr. James C. White (TAD chairperson) also attended the ceremony. This new agreement has the objective to support the continued, long-term development of astronomy and astrophysics in Morocco.

 

The members of the ISYA Program Committee were:

Dr. Michele Gerbaldi (Institut d'Astrophysique, Paris, France)

Dr. Hassane Darhmaoui (Al Akhawayn University, Ifrane, Morocco)

Dr. Khalil Chamcham (Casablanca University, Oxford University, UK)

 

Dr.  Amine Bensaid (Al Akhawayn University, School of Science & Engineering) was the Chairperson of the Local Organizing Committee.

 

The number of participants was 29 (female: 9, male: 20) 11 Moroccan and 18 foreigners from:

Algeria, Bulgaria, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Macedonia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Palestine, South Africa, Sudan and Turkey.

The background of the participants, ranged from finishing their BS degree to having started their PhD about one year ago.

 

The faculty members who lectured in the ISYA were:

Dr. Bruce Partridge (Haverford College, US) -     Radio Astronomy and Cosmology

Dr. Bruno Guiderdoni (Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, France) -   Galaxy Formation

Dr. Jean-Pierre de Grève (Brussels University, Belgium) -     Evolution of close binary stars

Dr. Joseph Silk (Oxford University, UK) -     Galaxy Formation

Dr. Martin Hendry (University of Glasgow, UK) -     Statistical Astronomy

Dr. Pedro G. Ferreira (Oxford University, UK) -     Cosmology with the Cosmic Microwave Background

Dr. Mariano Méndez (SRON - National Institute for Space Research,  The Netherlands) -     High-Energy Astrophysics

Dr. Edward Guinan (Villanova University, USA) -   Magnetic Activity of the Sun and Solar type Stars.     Variable and Eclipsing Stars as Astrophysical Laboratories

Dr. Michèle Gerbaldi (Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris and Universite de Paris-Sud Orsay, France) -     Stellar Atmosphere

Dr. Kavilan Moodley (University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) -    Cosmological Models

Dr. Ignasi Ribas (Barcelona university, Spain) -   Astronomical techniques, data analysis

Dr. Mohammed Badaoui (APESA- Agronomic and Veterinary Institute Hassan II,  Rabat - Morocco)  -    Infrared high resolution molecular spectroscopy

 

Thanks to a fruitful collaboration between AUI information technology systems (ITS) personnel and Dr. Ignasi Ribas, a network of 20 computers under LINUX was set up for the practical activities. Specialized software packages were installed for the reduction and analysis of data, (IRAF) and  (XSPEC) among others.

More than 25 hours were spent in data reduction and analysis.

 

 

ISYA 2004 URL: http://mail.alakhawayn.ma/~H.Darhmaoui/ISYA/index.htm

 

Michele Gerbaldi, Chairperson for the ISYA