This award will support travel and local expenses for United States students and early career scientists to attend the international workshop "Galactic Center Workshop 2009: A Window into the Nuclear Environment of Galaxies", to be held on October 19-23, 2009 in Shanghai, China. The purpose of the workshop is to highlight the recent research results on the center of the Milky Way and the nuclear regions of nearby galaxies. This conference is the latest in a series of scientific workshops held every 3-4 years on this topical area. Recent highlights include the high-resolution and sensitive new surveys of the Galactic Center interstellar medium at wavelengths from X-ray through radio, new constraints on the size and structure of the super massive black hole source, Sgr A*, and the most recent results from coordinated monitoring campaigns of this source. The workshop will also emphasize the relationship between the physical processes occurring in our own Galactic Center and those happening in the nuclei of the nearest galaxies. The format of the meetings will include substantial time for discussion in addition to the scheduled talks. These discussions, moderated by leading researchers in the field, will focus on the implications of the current results presented in the sessions and future directions for inquiry.
This workshop serves to promote Galactic Center astronomy in wider academic circles and on an international effort. The funding from this award will support the travel costs of as many as 20 junior researchers - graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and junior faculty members - to attend this international scientific workshop. Travel support will give young and active members of the scientific community the opportunity to attend what will certainly be a very interesting and informative workshop at an early stage in their scientific careers. In addition, the participants will be exposed to the breadth of astronomical activities occurring in China. A diverse group of speakers and participants will be recruited for this workshop in order to represent the diversity of research currently being carried out on this topic.
