International Astronomical Union Symposium 234 Planetary Nebulae in our Galaxy and Beyond

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AST-0608753MendezInternational Astronomical Union Symposium 234"Planetary Nebulae in our Galaxy and Beyond"The Big Island of Hawaii, April 3rd to 7th, 2006.The planetary nebula (PN) community has a history of very successful IAU symposia at intervals of 5-10 years since 1967. At the most recent such meeting (IAU Symposium 209, Canberra, Australia, 2001), the PN Working Group unanimously accepted the invitation by the Institute for Astronomy, Hawaii, to hold the next IAU PN symposium in Hawaii. This recognizes the significant contributions made by U.S. astronomers to the field of PN research, and the fact that an IAU Symposium on PNs had not been held in the U.S.A. since 1977. This very prestigious conference mixes theorists, observers and computational modelers from all over the world, defining our current level of understanding of PNs as a key phase in the late evolution of most stars, as an ideal astrophysical laboratory to study atomic, molecular, dust and plasma processes, and as kinematic probes to study the dynamics and mass distributions of galaxies and the intergalactic media of nearby clusters of galaxies. Participation of junior researchers is strongly encouraged, and some public lectures at the Manoa campus of the University of Hawaii are associated with this meeting.