FINAL ANNOUNCEMENT --- DECEMBER 2008

Location and Date:

The 1st CPS International School of Planetary Sciences will be held in 5-9 January, 2009 at Seapal Suma, a casual seaside resort located west to the central part of Kobe, Japan. The school is organized by Center for Planetary Science (CPS) under the Global Centers of Excellence (GCOE) Program: "Foundation of International Center for Planetary Science", a joint project between Kobe University and Hokkaido University.

Purpose and Scope:

The CPS International School of Planetary Science aims at promoting education and research in planetary science for highly motivated graduate students and young researchers worldwide. It will offer them an opportunity to interact with leading scientists in a specific field of the year. The present school is the heritage of the Kobe International Planetary School held under the Kobe University 21 Century COE program.

This year's topic of the school will be "Dust in Space", reflecting the coming retirement of Prof. Tadashi Mukai, who was the leader of the 21th COE program "Origin and Evolution of Planetary Systems" and is the most well-known Japanese scientist in cosmic dust research. Internationally well-established experts in dust science will review recent progress in our understandings of interstellar dust, interplanetary dust, cometary dust, and dust in protoplanetary disks and debris disks. The school consists of 16 lectures and 4 poster sessions. The Organizing Committee of the school has selected 57 participants in total on the basis of their applications.

Program:

Lecture Materials - If available, we distribute lecture materials in an electronic form at the lecture hall of Seapal Suma. Power supplies for laptops will be installed in the lecture hall during the school.

Registraion:

Registration is required for all participants upon arrival. The registration fee of 10,000 JPY should be paid by cash at the registration desk.

*An award winner of the CPS Travel Grant needs to provide the boarding pass of all coming flights at the registration desk if (s)he would travel by air.

Excursion:

We will organize a half-day excursion to World Heritage Himeji Castle, called "Himeji-jo", on January 7th. To participate in the excursion, sign in at the registration desk. The registration fee of the school does not cover the round-trip railroad fare of 1,640 JPY, the castle's admission of 600 JPY, nor any other expenses during the excursion, including the dinner.

For more information on Himeji-jo, please visit the following websites:
http://www.himeji-kanko.jp/en/spot/ss001.html
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/661
http://www.himeji-castle.gr.jp/index/English/index.html

Accommodation:

All participants except lecturers are expected to stay in Seapal Suma by sharing a room with 3 other participants (4 in 1). The room is a Japanese style, namely, a large room floored with tatami mats and equipped with a toilet. There is no tub/shower in the room, but the hotel has an ocean-view public bath for each gender equipped with a huge tub at the top floor. The room will cost 35,650 JPY per person to share the room for four nights. To occupy the room alone for four nights, 47,650 JPY will be required instead. A limited number of Japanese-style rooms with both toilet and tub/shower are available with 37,650 JPY per person for four nights (4 in 1), but 45,650 JPY or 49,650 JPY if 2 in 1 or 1 in 1, respectively. All the participants will be allocated a preferred room indicated in the application form. Western-style rooms with toilet and shower are reserved for lecturers with 35,650 JPY for four nights. The corresponding lodging charge should be paid to the hotel immediately after registration. Seapal Suma will accept the following credit cards: VISA, JCB, Master, and AMEX.

Seapal Suma
1-1-1 Sumaura-dori
Suma, Kobe 654-0055 Japan
Phone: +81-(0)78-731-6815
Fax: +81-(0)78-734-1896
The Official Website (Japanese only)
English page (from a hotel booking site)

Meals - The above-mentioned cost for the accommodation includes all the meals during the school (from the dinner on January 5th to the lunch on January 9th), EXCEPT for the dinner on January 7th, when an excursion or free time is scheduled in the afternoon.

Transportation:

The venue is located about 100 min. from Kansai International Airport (KIX) (65 min. by shuttle bus to Kobe Sannomiya, 5 min. walk from the bus stop to JR Sannomiya railway station, 12-15 min. by train to JR Suma railway station, plus 12 min. walk from the station).

For details about directions to Seapal Suma, see a guide in PDF format.
1st CPS Planetary School

Important Dates:

22 September 2008 Deadline for application
30 September 2008 Notification of our decision to the applications including the financial support
30 November 2008 Abstract deadline for poster presentation
5-9 January 2009 The 1st CPS International Planetary School

Organizing Committee:

Tetsuo Yamamoto Hokkaido University
Akiko M. Nakamura Kobe University
Kohei Kitazato Kobe University
Hidekazu Tanaka Hokkaido University
Taku Takeuchi Kobe University
Yuri Aikawa Kobe University
Hiroshi Kimura Hokkaido University

Contact Information:

E-mail: pschool-info@cps-jp.org

Post-mail:
Akiko M. Nakamura
Center for Planetary Science
Graduate School of Science, Kobe University
1-1 Rokkodai, Nada, Kobe 657-8501, Japan
Fax: +81-(0)78-803-5791

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