Announcements

Registration Deadline is extended.

Important Dates (revised on Nov. 19, 2019)

  • December 10th : Travel Grant Application Deadline
  • December 10th : Early registration Deadline
  • December 10th : Abstract (for oral presentation; up to Make Submission) Deadline
  • December 11th : Late registration begins
  • January 10th, 2020 (TBD) : Selection results announced (oral/poster, travel grant)
  • January 15th, 2020 (TBD) : Late registration Deadline
  • January 15th, 2020 (TBD) : Abstract (File upload) Deadline

See also Important Dates page for more details.

Registration is now open! (September 11, 2019)

We are pleased to announce IAU symposium 360,  “Astronomical Polarimetry 2020 – New Era of Multi-Wavelength Polarimetry” , which will be held at Hiroshima, Japan, 23 –27 March, 2020.

Please find the sub pages, linked from above menu, for further information.

Important Dates (old; see revised ones)

  • Abstract submission deadline: November 25th 2019
  • Early registration deadline: November 25th 2019
  • Travel grant application deadline: November 25th 2019
  • Late registration deadline: January 25th 2020
  • On-site registration: TBD

Scientific Rationale

Astronomical Polarimetry 2020 (Astropol 2020) is the next in a series of international conferences. The aim of this series of conferences is to bring researchers interested in astronomical polarimetry together to share and discuss recent results and advances in technical and scientific aspects in all relevant astronomical fields.

It has been more than 60 years since Hall and Hiltner reported that the light from reddened stars is generally polarized. Around the same time, Davis and Greenstein presented a model to interpret the phenomena owing to aligned dust grains in the interstellar medium.

Since then, the global astronomical polarimetry community has grown tremendously. These cutting-edgetechniques are applied to answer major questions in astronomy, from small scales such as dust particles in proto-planetary systems up to large scales involving the origin and the fate of the Universe. Theories and models to interpret the observations have similarly evolved in scope and sophistication.

The first ‘Astropol’ conference was held in Tucson, AZ, in1972. After that, meetings were held in 1995 in Troy, New York, USA and in 2004 in Waikoloa, Hawaii. In the 2008 meeting in La Malbaie, Quebec, Canada, sciences cases from small to large telescopes were discussed, and the 2014 meeting in Grenoble, France covered wider fields of astronomical polarimetry, including laboratory experiments, solar system, exoplanets, stellar magnetic fields, interstellar medium, galaxies, Gamma-ray bursts and the Cosmic Microwave Background. This latest Astropol meeting attracted around 150 of participants.

Since 2014, a number of sophisticated instruments and datasets have become available to the community. ALMA was inaugurated in and started polarization observations in 2014. Adaptive optics aided 8-m class telescopes, such as Subaru, VLT and Gemini have been providing high-contrast spectropolarimetry. There is also the Robert Stobie Spectrograph (RSS) spectropolarimeter on the 11-m SALT telescope and the mid-infrared CanariCam polarimeter on the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), that may become available to public in the future. Data release of the all-sky radio and submillimeter polarization mapping by the Planck satellite has had a strong impact in many astronomical fields. The SOFIA/HAWC+ FIR polarimeter is available to the community. In addition, Astrosat and Hitomi and balloon experiments have offered us new insights into the polarized sky in X-rays and Gamma-rays.

ASTROPOL 2020 will demonstrate that a new era of polarimetry has come to the astronomical community.

Scientific Organization Committee

  • Hiroko Shinnaga Kagoshima University, Amanogawa Galaxy Astronomy Research Center (AGARC), Japan (Chair)
  • B-G Andersson Universities Space Research Association, United States (co-Chair)
  • Antonio Mario Magalhães Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil (co-Chair)
  • Francois Menard Institut de Planétologie et d’Astrophysique de Grenoble, France (co-Chair)
  • Edith Falgarone PSL Research University, France
  • Jennifer L. Hoffman University of Denver, United States
  • Masateru Ishiguro KASI Rep of Korea
  • Koji S. Kawabata Hiroshima University, Japan
  • Masafumi Matsumura Kagawa University, Japan
  • Thushara Pillai Boston University, United States
  • Stephen Potter South African Astronomical Observatory South Africa
  • Claudia V. Rodrigues Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, Brazil
  • Motohide Tamura University of Tokyo, Japan

Local Organization Committee

  • Koji S. Kawabata Hiroshima University, Japan (Chair)
  • Hiroshi Akitaya Hiroshima University, Japan (co-Chair)
  • Yasushi Fukazawa Hiroshima University, Japan
  • Hanae Inami Hiroshima University, Japan
  • Masafumi Matsumura Kagawa University, Japan
  • Tsunefumi Mizuno Hiroshima University, Japan
  • Hiroshi Nagai National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
  • Tatsuya Nakaoka Hiroshima University, Japan
  • Mahito Sasada Hiroshima University, Japan
  • Hiroko Shinnaga Kagoshima University, Japan
  • Hiromitsu Takahashi Hiroshima University, Japan
  • Makoto Uemura Hiroshima University, Japan

Sponsors

  • International Astronomical Union (IAU)
  • Hiroshima Astrophysical Science Center, Hiroshima University
  • CORE-U, Hiroshima University
  • Amanogawa Galaxy Astronomy Research Center (AGARC), Kagoshima University
  • National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)
  • Hiroshima Convention & Visitors Bureau

Be a sponsor of Astropol 2020

Be a sponsor pf IAUS 360

Call for Sponsors (pdf file; 1MB)