FOR RELEASE: June 2, 1999
Contact: David Brand
Office: (607) 255-3651
E-Mail: [email protected]
Compuserve: Bill Steele, 72650,565
http://www.news.cornell.edu
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The seventh International Conference on Asteroids, Comets and Meteors will be held at Cornell University July 26-30. The following includes information for media representatives wishing to attend the conference and a media registration form.
Introduction
The 1999 Asteroids, Comets, Meteors Conference (ACM) on Cornell's Ithaca campus is sponsored by NASA, the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Cornell.
A broad range of scientific sessions will present the latest developments in all aspects of studies on asteroids, comets and meteors, including observations, theories of origin and evolution, discoveries and astrometry.
For a complete list of abstracts, visit the ACM web site at http://scorpio.tn.cornell.edu/ACM/.
In mid-June, a list of press conferences will be distributed, including the names and affiliations of participants.
Members of the media should arrive no later than Sunday evening, July 25, because the first of the daily press conferences will begin early the following morning. The press room, in the Statler Hotel's Princeton/Yale Room on the Cornell campus, will be open daily from 8 a.m. to
8 p.m. during the meeting. Facilities will include computers, Internet access, phones, fax and copiers. Coffee, tea and Danish pastry will be served at 10:30 a.m. and at 3:30 p.m. daily.
A form for advance registration is appended to this announcement. Please do not delay in arranging accommodations. Campus housing (residence hall rooms) will be available. Please see the ACM web site for details.
Scientific sessions
The 450 abstracts submitted have been organized into 28 different sessions, for approximately 18 hours of plenary talks and 18 hours of parallel sessions. In the past, the organization of the ACM scientific program has tended to split sessions along the asteroid, comet, meteor subcategories, resulting in a conference of three parallel topics with few opportunities for cross-disciplinary discussion. This year, an effort was made to organize the plenary sessions to be cross-disciplinary. Thus session titles will be broad, including such subjects as "Composition," "Spins and Sizes," "Collisional Processes" and "Transitional Objects." Sessions will include speakers from each of the asteroid, comet, meteor categories. In addition, poster sessions will draw participation from all categories of ACM subjects.
The ACM '99 conference's invited speakers are at the forefront of their fields and will be reporting on recent research in their areas of expertise. They were chosen because the recent advances in these areas are particularly exciting and newsworthy.
Invited speakers and their topics will include:
-- Steven J. Ostro, JPL: Dramatic new asteroid results from the Arecibo Observatory.
-- M.A. Barucci, Observatoire de Paris: Observations of objects at edge of the solar system.
-- Donald Brownlee, University of Washington: Stardust space mission.
-- S.J. Bus: Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Findings on structure of asteroid families.
-- W.J. Merline, Southwest Research Institute: Discovery of a satellite of asteroid Eugenia.
-- Eberhard Gruen, Max Planck Institute: Confirmation of galactic dust near Earth.
History of the ACM
The first ACM conference was held in 1983 in Uppsala, Sweden. Follow-up meetings were held in Uppsala in 1985 and 1989; in Flagstaff, Ariz., in 1991; in Belgirate, Italy, in 1993; and in Versailles, France, in 1996. The number of participants has grown steadily, from 76 in 1983 to about 500 in 1996. Attendees are drawn from all over Europe, from Australia, New Zealand, North and South America, India, Central Asia and Japan.
The spirit of the ACM conference has been to welcome scientists and enthusiasts of asteroid, comet and meteor studies of all ages and from all nations to a gathering where ideas can be openly shared and discussed. ACM '99 at Cornell will continue this tradition.
Press registration, including form
Registration entitles journalists and science public information officers to a badge that allows access to any of the scientific sessions, as well as to the press room. No one will be admitted without a valid badge. Registered media will be guests of the Cornell News Service at a banquet at the Statler Hotel on July 28.
Eligibility for press registration is limited to the following persons, all of whom have equal access:
-- Working press, representing bona fide news media organizations, with a press card, letter or business card from the publication;
-- Freelance science writers, presenting a current membership card from NASW (or a regional affiliate of NASW), or evidence of work pertaining to science published in 1998 or 1999.
-- Public information officers of scientific societies, educational institutions and government agencies.
Note: Representatives of the business side of news media, publishing houses and for-profit corporations must register at the main registration desk and pay the appropriate fees. Eligible persons are encouraged to preregister via the form at the end of this message. It may be returned by e-mail, fax or mail.
ACM press registration form
This form should be returned to David Brand at the Cornell University News Service, Surge 3, Ithaca, N.Y. 14853; by e-mail to [email protected], or by fax to (607) 255-5373. Registration for journalists and press information officers will be at the Statler Hotel press room.
Name:
(to be printed on badge)
Media Affiliation:
(Freelancers: Describe your eligibility and bring evidence of eligibility to the press room.)
Mailing address:
Telephone:
Fax:
E-mail:
Date:
-30-
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