Origin of Galaxies 2003-04 Home Letter Participants Reading Material Program Social Activity General Info Restaurants

A Letter from the School Directors

Dear School Participant,

Congratulations for becoming a participant in the Winter School on the Origin of Galaxies. We are looking forward to having a great school together.

We have selected 90 participants for the school, based on quality. The list of participants, with their affiliations and email addresses, can be found under Participants. 33 are from universities in North America, 26 from Israel, 21 from Europe, 10 from Asia, the former Soviet Union, Australia and more. 54 are junior and intermediate graduate students, 28 are advanced graduate students, and 8 are postdocs.

The web page is being updated daily. Please visit it regularly, at www.as.huji.ac.il, click on "schools" and on "Winter School in Theoretical Physics"

Check General Info for useful information concerning travel, hotel, meals, weather etc., similar to the letter you recently got from the school.

Check out the summary of the Program. A more detailed program will appear soon. Please come prepared for a very intensive school, with very full days. The structure of a typical day will consist of 5 slots, of 1.5 hours each (except for a somewhat shorter 5th), with coffee breaks and a lunch break. The first three will be lectures by the school lecturers, the fourth will be a tutorial session, and the fifth will either host a guest lecture or a series of short seminars by the participants.

Under Reading Material you will find a list of links to recommended background material for the different lectures. You are encouraged to prepare yourself accordingly, and perhaps bring some of this material with you for reviewing before and during the school. We will make an effort to distribute printouts of the lectures whenever possible prior to the lecture, and will also put the lectures on the web.

The daily tutorial session is an especially important element of the school. It will be conducted by the three lecturers of that day as an informal discussion session of questions and answers in order to clarify and elaborate on issues that came up in the lectures. The participants will be encouraged to submit their questions in writing into a question box during the lectures and breaks in order to guide the lecturers for the tutorial session.

Every participant who is already engaged in research is invited to present a poster describing his/her results. Please indicate by email to the school office in case you intend to present a poster. The poster should be no bigger than width x height = 68 x 87 cm (27.2" x 34.8"). The posters will be viewed during the breaks, and some will be selected for short oral presentations.

Postdocs and Advanced students are invited to propose a very short oral presentation. Please write to the school in case you wish to deliver such a talk with the proposed title and a brief abstract.

We will make an effort to maximize the informal interaction between the lecturers and the students, during the sessions as well as during the breaks and the evenings. Please don't hesitate to initiate such an interaction -- this is what the lecturers are there for. This should include dinners out together in evenings when there is no organized school activity.

Full presence is required in all the professional school activities, starting Monday, December 29, at 9:00 am, and ending Thursday, January 8, at 5:30 pm. If your current flight schedule does not permit full attendance, please try to change it accordingly. If the planned tourist activity during the school is not enough -- you are most welcome to extend your stay in Jerusalem, but please resist any temptation to play the tourist during school sessions.

A few words about the social activities. We plan a New-Year party. The idea is to start with a talent show by school participants (and lecturers...) and continue with a wild dancing party (yes, astronomers can dance...). If you can perform in the talent show, please email Elad Zinger, a local student who volunteered to coordinate the party, at eladzing@phys.huji.ac.il .

Other than the party, we plan a one day excursion (on Saturday) to the Dead Sea, Massada and Ein Gedi. A half day guided tour of Jerusalem on Monday, January 5. An opening reception on the first Monday, and a school dinner on the second Wednesday. Tuesdays are late nights at the nearby Israel Museum, and we may try to organize a guided tour.

We are looking forward to seeing you at the school,

Sandy Faber & Avishai Dekel