Galaxy Wars: Star Formation and Stellar Populations in Interacting Galaxies Conference

这个2009年7月在东田纳西州立大学（ETSU）举行的研讨会强调了星系相互作用的物理学。强相互作用的星系处于一个短暂但重要的进化阶段，其特征是潮汐尾、桥和其他形态特征，以及增强的恒星形成和明亮的年轻星团。最近的相互作用流体动力学模型能够详细地再现单个系统的形态和恒星形成历史，而太空和地面望远镜提供了许多关于恒星和星团形成的新信息。这次会议将汇集恒星形成专家、恒星群合成爱好者、数值建模者和不同波长观测专家，共同努力，以更全面地了解这些相遇。组织者预计约有60人参加。这次会议将把世界一流的研究人员带到该国一个服务不足的地区。可能的演讲者名单和科学组织委员会都有大约50%是女性。为了吸引不同群体的与会者，会议将通过邮件向当地历史悠久的黑人学院和大学的教师，以及美国天文学会少数族裔演讲者名单上对会议主题有研究兴趣的天文学家发布广告。当地的大学生、高中教师和业余天文学家将被邀请参加，无需支付报名费。NSF的支持将允许来自较小学院的研究生和研究人员参与。

This July 2009 workshop to be held at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) highlights the physics of galaxy interactions. Strongly interacting galaxies are in a short-lived but important stage of evolution, characterized by tidal tails, bridges, and other morphological peculiarities, along with enhanced star formation and luminous young star clusters. Recent hydrodynamical models of interactions are able to reproduce the morphology and star formation history of individual systems in some detail, while space-and ground-based telescopes have provided much new information about star and star-cluster formation. The meeting will bring together star formation experts, aficionados of stellar population synthesis, numerical modelers, and experts in observations at different wavelengths, working towards a more complete picture of these encounters. The organizers expect about 60 participants. The meeting will bring world-class researchers to an underserved region of the country. Both the list of possible speakers and the scientific organizing committee are roughly 50% women. To attract a diverse group of attendees, the meeting will be advertised by mailings to faculty at local historically-black colleges and universities, and to astronomers on the American Astronomical Society's list of minority speakers who have research interests related to the meeting topics. Local undergraduate students, high-school teachers and amateur astronomers will be invited to attend without paying a registration fee. NSF support will allow graduate students and researchers from smaller colleges to participate.