This award will provide financial support for the workshop The Biggest, Baddest, Coolest Stars to be held at East Tennessee State University, Johnson City TN, 16 to 18 July 2007. The bulk of this funding will be used for the financial assistance of graduate students, individuals from smaller institutions, and international attendees who might not otherwise be able to participate in the workshop.
The motivation for the conference is the recent developments in our understanding of the physics of cool stars lead by both observational and theoretical advancements. Nonetheless, significant questions still remain unanswered. The topics to be covered include red giant stars, supergiant stars, horizontal branch stars, asymptotic giant branch stars, OH/IR stars, and protoplanetary nebulae, with an emphasis on both theory and multi-wavelength observation. Key issues to be considered include the formation of dust, the production of large molecules, the transition to planetary nebulae, winds, chromospheres, shock physics, and abundance changes due to evolution. This meeting will be formatted in a workshop mode with an emphasis on discussion, ending with a special session on the future directions of the field.
The proceedings will be disseminated through the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series who will publish the proceedings. The abstracts will be available through the meeting web site and the Astrophysics Data System.
