The Astronomy Supercomputer Time Allocation Committee (ASTAC) has released a new Call for Proposals for Quarters 3-4 2020 (1st July to 31st December 2020). The deadline for this call is 5pm (AEST) Friday 29th May 2020.

Six million service units are available for allocation on national supercomputing facilities. This includes allocations for CPU-only and GPU-specific applications. The resources available are as follows: 

• NCI Astronomy Program: up to 4,000 kSUs on the new Gadi system (either purely CPU-based or mixed CPU-GPU calculations) 
• OzSTAR: up to 2,000 kSUs (1,200 kSUs prioritised for GPU-based projects) 

Please see the ASTAC information sheet for more detail, including how to apply, noting that applications are via an online proposal system, see link here.

For more information about ASTAC please contact AAL Senior Program Manager, Dr Robert Shen.

AAL would like to congratulate Dr Sarah Pearce, AAL Board Director, who was recently named  2020 Telstra New South Wales Business Woman of the Year.

Sarah also won the Public Sector and Academia award, recognising women who dedicate themselves to making an impact in education or public service. 

An internationally recognised physicist, Sarah leads a team of over 250 as the Deputy Director of Astronomy and Space Science at CSIRO. As part of her award, Sarah was commended for "her innovative space programs and committed to collaboration". See more about her achievement here.

AAL would like to congratulate Associate Professor Chris Power, from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) at The University of Western Australia (UWA) Node, for being one of four recipients of the inaugural Australasian Leadership Computing Grants (ALCG).

These grants are the largest of their kind in Australian history and will allow all four recipients record-breaking access to NCI's Gadi supercomputer – a total of almost 180 million units of compute time. 

Chris will use the awarded time, along with colleagues from the University of Tasmania and the University of Hertfordshire, to create simulations of the jets produced by supermassive black holes, highlighting how these jets play a role in the formation of galaxies.

"We are delighted to have secured one of the inaugural ALCG awards – this is a significant amount of supercomputing time and it will allow us to tackle one of the big challenges in galaxy formation. In addition, it's great to see NCI investing in fundamental research in such a big way by offering these kinds of large awards – and I think the Australian astronomical community really welcomes this initiative." 
Assoc. Prof. Chris Power, UWA, ICRAR

Associate Professor Chris Power is a member of AAL's Science Advisory Committee (ASAC). The Australasian Leadership Computing Grants are funded by the Australian Government NCRIS scheme – see here for more information.

​For more about High Performance Computing (HPC), please contact Rob Shen, AAL Senior Program Manager.

AAL would like to congratulate Australian student, Katy Proctor, who was recently granted one of the coveted ESO Summer Studentship positions for 2020. Katy, who is currently studying a Masters at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in WA, was selected as one of just six recipients for the studentship from almost 300 applicants based in Europe, Chile and Australia.

Katy hopes to use the studentship to further her research in galaxy formation and evolution, which up until now has largely focused on simulations. Now, she will be able to expand her horizons observationally via the ESO telescopes and instruments that will be available to her via this opportunity. 

"I’m really excited by the opportunity to broaden my skillset and work on galaxy formation and evolution in an observational context at a world-leading institution.” 

Katy's project, entitled 'Distant galaxies in high definition – How starbursts and black holes impact the gas in galaxies' will make use of ALMA CO data to create a library of the sizes and shapes of molecular gas regions in galaxies. The library will then be used to investigate how galaxies at high redshift are impacted by energetic events such as extreme starbursts or supermassive black holes.
Due to current travel restrictions, Katy’s research and participation in all ESO-based activities will be held online.

The opportunity for Australia to participate in the Summer Studentship program is due to the ESO Strategic Partnership, which AAL oversees on behalf of the Australian Government. AAL would like to congratulate Katy once more on her success and wish her the best of luck for her ESO Summer Studentship. 

For information on how to apply for future ESO Studentships, or for any other information related to the ESO Strategic Partnership, please contact AAL Program Manager, Dr Stuart Ryder.

Astronomy Data and Computing Services (ADACS) have released a Call for Expressions of Interest (EoI) to apply for the Merit Allocation Program in Semester 2020B. The deadline for applications is Friday 17th April, 2020 at 8pm AEDT.

The ADACS Merit Allocation Program now has three types of support available (not all options are available every semester):

• Training Support 
• Long-Term Support
• Software Support

The allocation of all resources will be based on impact and scientific merit, with the final evaluation performed by the Astronomy Data and Computing Services Time Allocation Committee (ADACS TAC). See here for more on ADACS TAC, and here for more about ADACS and the ADACS Merit Allocation Program.

EoI applications should be sent via email to: TAC@adacs.org.au. Enquiries regarding the ADACS Merit Allocation Program should be directed to either Gregory Poole or Jarrod Hurley. General enquires can be sent to Rob Shen.