5th Microquasar Workshop

[Michael Arida <arida@milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov>]

First Announcement of the 5th Microquasar Workshop -
Microquasars and Related Astrophysics

For future updates, please refer to http://jet.uah.edu/microquasar/

GENERAL INFORMATION

This is the first announcement of The Fifth Microquasar Workshop,
to take place between October 13 to October 19, 2003, at Tsinghua
University, Beijing, China, thanks for the support of the SOC of
the fourth microquasar workshop.

As well as covering the traditional topics of the microquasar
workshop, we also plan to expand the scientific program to
subjects closely related to microquasar physics, such as AGNs,
quasars, extragalactic jets, gamma-ray bursts and intermediate
mass black holes. Since this is the first time this workshop will
take place in Asia, we welcome and anticipate active participation
of students and researchers in Asian and Pacific Rim countries and
regions.


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SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY COMMITTEE

The organizing Committee will arrange the details of the program,
and will select the attendees in case of overbooking (max seats
100 persons), consulting the Scientific Advisory Committee.

S.N. Zhang (Chair, Tsinghua University and Univ. of Alabama in Huntsville, China and USA)
T.P. Li (Tsinghua University and IHEP/CAS, China)
Y. Zhao (NAOC/CAS, China)
Z. Dai (Nanjing University, China)
K.S. Cheng (University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China)
Ph. Durouchoux (Saclay, France)
F. Mirabel (Saclay, France)
L.C. Ho (Carnegie Observatories, USA)
R. D. Blandford (Caltech, USA)
M.C. Weisskopf (NASA/MSFC, USA)
J. Swank (NASA/GSFC, USA)
R. Sunyaev (MPA and IKI, Germany and Russia)
J. Greiner (MPE, Germany)
T. Belloni (Oss. Astr. Di Brera, Italy)
Y. Ueda (ISAS, Japan)
A.R. Rao (TIFR, India)
R.B. Fender (University of Amsterdam)

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LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

J. Zhou (Chair and Secretary, Tsinghua University)
S.N. Zhang (Tsinghua University and Univ. of Alabama in Huntsville, China and USA)
R. Shang (Tsinghua University)

Contact Address
Dr. Jianfeng Zhou
Physics Department and Center for Astrophysics
Tsinghua University
Beijing, 100084, P.R. China
phone: +86-10 6279-2127
fax: +86-10 6279-2125
email: microquasar@jet.uah.edu or zhoujf@tsinghua.edu.cn

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PARTIAL LIST OF INVITED SPEAKERS

Ph. Durouchoux, F. Mirabel, R. Sunyaev, M. Weisskopf, R. Fender,
Josep Maria Paredes, S. N. Zhang, R. Remillard*

*Not confirmed yet

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DURATION OF THE WORKSHOP

The scientific program of the workshop will begin in the morning
of Monday, October 13th, 2003 and end in the morning of Friday,
October 17th, 2003.

On Friday afternoon, we will organize a brief (free) tour to
Tsinghua Space Center, Institute of High Energy Physics (including
Beijing Electron-Positron Collider) and National Astronomical
Observatories.

On the following Saturday and Sunday (October 18th -19th, 2003),
we will organize sightseeing tours to several historical sites in
Beijing, tentatively including the Great Walls, Ming Tombs,
Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Heaven's Temple. Because there are
so many famous historical sites in Beijing and it is impossible to
tour through them in two days, we will have to optimize the tour
package carefully.

The program will be organized with one formal session in the
morning and one in the late afternoon, each including 1 or 2
invited talks and several contributed ones, with poster sessions
in parallel. Lunch and early afternoon will be dedicated to
informal discussions, before the afternoon presentations.

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LOCATION, ACCOMMODATION AND TOURS

Tsinghua University, about 30 minutes from Beijing Capital
International Airport, is located in the Haidian district of
Beijing, which harbors several China's top universities, many of
the research institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, many
of China's most advanced high-tech companies (the Zhong-Guang
Village, also called China's silicon valley), and some of the most
beautiful historical sites, such as Summer Palace and
Yuan-Ming-Yuan (Garden of Perfect Splendor).

Deadline for hotel reservation is on August 1st, 2003. Methods of
reservation and payment will be announced later. A block of rooms
in the guest houses of Tsinghua University will be reserved for
the workshop. We will negotiate special prices for the workshop
participants; the expected price range is between $30-$60 for a
room with two single beds, varying between different guest houses.

The sightseeing tours on Saturday and Sunday will have to be
reserved and paid. Methods of reservation and payment will be
announced later. We will negotiate a special price for the
workshop. We expect that the conference will sponsor part of the
costs and the balance for the participants will be around $50 for
each day, including transportation, guides, door tickets, and
three meals for the day.

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REGISTRATION AND CONTRIBUTED PAPERS

Deadline for registration is on August 1st, 2003.

The registration fee is $300. Methods of registration and payment
will be announced later. The registration fee includes a copy of
the workshop proceedings, all meals from Monday morning through
Friday evening, coffee breaks, transportation from airport to
hotel (for international travelers), and the tour on Friday
afternoon to several research institutes in Beijing.

The workshop program itself is largely composed of invited review
talks and time for discussions, so the number of the contributed
talks will be limited.

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FINANCIAL SUPPORTS

Limited financial support will be provided to participants of
financially harshed countries in the form of partial or complete
coverage of hotel accommodation for up to six nights.

Students with a recommendation letter from his/her advisor may
apply for a registration fee reduction of $150.

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PROCEEDINGS

The workshop proceedings will be published and available to each
registered participant.

We are discussing with a chief editor of a newly established and
fully refereed English journal Chinese Journal of Astronomy and
Astrophysics for publishing selected and refereed papers in a
special issue dedicated to this workshop. If the editorial board
is in favor of this, the participants will be encouraged to submit
their contributions to this journal. The organizing committee will
select referees among the workshop participants to review the
submitted papers. There will be no page charge and each
contributor will get a copy of the special issue paid by the
workshop.

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SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS

We appreciate very much the generous offer of financial support
from the following organizations:

National Natural Science Foundation of China

Center for Astrophysics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Department of Astronomy, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

Laboratory for Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics,
Chinese Academy of Sciences
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