Support for IAU Symposium 258, "The Ages of Stars"; October 13-17, 2008; Baltimore, MD

该奖项将部分支持将于2008年10月13-17日在马里兰州巴尔的摩举行的第258届国际天文学联合会研讨会“恒星的时代”。恒星年龄在各种各样的天体物理学背景中扮演着重要的角色，从跟踪恒星的演化到限制行星形成的过程，再到解开银河系的历史和结构。恒星及其物理理论模型的最新发展（更好的反应速率、扩散处理、包含旋转效应等），加上对年龄的新观测测试，如白矮星冷却序列，以及对年轻端年龄（即恒星和行星形成）的理解日益增加的重要性，使现在成为本次会议的理想时机。为了达到这个目的，这次会议将讨论几个重要的问题，并讨论一些天体物理学问题，这些问题一旦能够估计出单个或群恒星的年龄就可以回答。这笔资金将用于与会者（优先针对美国和早期职业研究人员）的差旅费用、会议基础设施（投影仪租赁、海报展板等）以及会议记录的传播。

This award will partially support the conference IAU Symposium 258, "The Ages of Stars" to be held in Baltimore, MD, 13-17 October, 2008. Stellar ages play an important role in a wide variety of astrophysical contexts, from following the evolution of stars to constraining the process of planet formation to disentangling the history and structure of the Milky Way. The recent developments in theoretical models of stars and their physics (better reaction rates, treatments of diffusion, inclusion of rotation effects, etc.) coupled with new observational tests of ages such as white dwarf cooling sequences, and the ever-increasing importance of understanding ages at the young end (i.e., star and planet formation), make now an ideal time for this conference. Towards this end, several significant questions will be addressed during this meeting and a number of astrophysical questions that can be answered once ages of single or groups of stars can be estimated will be discussed. The support will be used for travel costs of attendees (preferentially directed at US and early career researchers), meeting infrastructure (projector rentals, poster display boards, etc.), and disseminating the proceedings.