FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT --- AUGUST 2009

Location and Date:

The CPS International School of Planetary Sciences will be held in 4-9 January, 2010 at Seapal Suma, a casual seaside resort located west to the central part of Kobe, Japan.

Purpose and Scope:

The CPS International School of Planetary Sciences 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.

This year's topic of the school is

"Planetary Atmospheres --- Sisters, relatives and ancestors of our own ---"

The main part of the school is a series of lectures on various aspects of planetary atmospheres, surface environments, and their interaction with planetary interiors including the following topics: (1) cutting-edge reviews of the atmospheres of Mars and Venus and their exploration, (2) a perspective on the dynamics of the planetary atmospheres including the Earth's as an example, (3) in-depth discussion on the origin and evolution of the coupled system of planetary atmospheres and interiors, with the search for the definition of habitable worlds in mind.

Internationally well-established experts in atmospheric sciences will review recent progress in our understandings of those fields. The lecturers and their topics are listed below:

Yutaka Abe (The University of Tokyo, Japan)
--- Habitable Planet
Francois Forget (LMD, France)
--- Martian Climate from the Past to the Present
Takeshi Imamura (JAXA/ISAS, Japan)
--- Venus four day circulation, planed observation (Planet-C)
Yoshihisa Matsuda (Tokyo Gakugei University, Japan)
--- Venus four day circulation, theory
Kensuke Nakajima (Kyushu University, Japan)
--- Structures of moist convection
Peter. L. Read (University of Oxford, England)
--- Climate and circulation of the Martian Atmosphere
Tapio Schneider (CalTech, U.S.A.)
--- Principles of planetary circulations, from Earth to Neptune
Dima Titov (Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Germany)
--- Venus Express
Kevin Zahnle (NASA Ames, U.S.A.)
--- Origin and Evolution of Planetary Atmospheres


Target Participants and Selection:

The lectures are targeted mainly on doctoral students and postdocs, exclusive of bachelor and diploma students. All the lectures are given in English and we welcome applicants from any country.

We will select 50 participants based on

(1) the level and suitability of applicant's qualification and (2) the relevance of his/her works and interests to planetary science (we attach importance to the way they are described in the application form).

Applications should be made by filling out the attached form along with a letter of recommendation, and sending them by e-mail to < pschool-info@cps-jp.org > . The deadline for application is September 25, 2009. Selection will be made by Organizing Committee and the decision will be sent to the applicants by October 5, 2009.


Application form

CPS Travel Grants:

A limited amount of funds is available for approximately 25 successful participants, and the amount of money paid to individual awardees will be decided by Organizing Committee.

The obligations of the awardees are to present their posters at the poster session (and, as for Japanese awardees, to contribute in constructing lecture archives).

Please indicate your intension and estimate your transportation expenses on the application form if you would like to receive the CPS travel grant. Note that January 4th is probably still in the New Year's celebrations in Japan, therefore, your flight ticket might cost more than the standard rate. You have to consult with a agency nearby.

The amount of financial support made available to the recipients will be also informed by October 5, 2009.


Registraion:

Registration fee is 10,000 JPY. This includes: the reception, coffee breaks, beverages at the poster session, and an extra cost for the banquet scheduled on the dinner time on Jan. 8th.

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 approximately 45,000 JPY per person to share the room for five nights. To occupy the room alone for five nights, 60,000 JPY will be required instead. A limited number of Japanese-style rooms with both toilet and tub/shower are available with approximately 47,000 JPY per person for five nights (4 in 1), but 57,000 JPY or 62,000 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 62,000 JPY for five 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 4th to the breakfast on January 9th), EXCEPT for the dinner on January 6th, when we organize a half-day excursion 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, 12-13 min. by train to JR Suma Kaihinkoen railway station, plus 8 min. walk from the station). The bus fare from the airport is 1,800 JPY and the train ticket costs 170 JPY. The nearest airport to the venue is Kobe Airport (UKB), from which Port Liner, an urban fully automated guideway transit (AGT) system, will take you to JR Sannomiya railway station in 16-18 min. (320 JPY). Osaka International Airport, another name, Itami Airport (ITM), is also convenient to JR Sannomiya station. It takes approximately 40 min. by bus and costs 1,020 JPY.

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

Important Dates:

25 September 2009 Deadline for application
5 October 2009 Notification of our decision to the applications including the financial support
27 November 2009 Abstract deadline for poster presentation
4-9 January 2010 The CPS International School of Planetary Sciences

Organizing Committee:

Yoshi-Yuki Hayashi Kobe University
Peter L. Read University of Oxford
Kiyoshi Kuramoto Hokkaido University
George Hashimoto Okayama University
Kensuke Nakajima Kyushu University
Akiko M. Nakamura Kobe University
Hiroshi Kimura CPS
Yoshiyuki Takahashi CPS
Ayako Suzuki CPS
Jun Kimura CPS
Kimiko Utsumi CPS
Tomoko Tsuji CPS
Kana Matsumoto CPS
Chika Kobayashi CPS

Contact Information:

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

Post-mail:
Yoshi-Yuki Hayashi
Center for Planetary Science
Graduate School of Science, Kobe University
1-1 Rokkodai, Nada, Kobe 657-8501, Japan
Fax: +81-(0)78-803-5731

Funds:

The school is sponsored by Center for Planetary Science (CPS) under the Global COE Program: "Foundation of International Center for Planetary Science", a joint project between Kobe University and Hokkaido University.

Links:

Last Update : Aug. 31, 2009