The 2008 Synthesis Imaging Workshop attendees and lecturers.
The Eleventh Synthesis Imaging Workshop was held from June 10-17, 2008, in Socorro, NM. Most of the workshop was held at Workman Center on the campus of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMIMT). The data tutorials were partially held at the NRAO Pete V. Domenici Science Operations Center in Socorro. There were four and a half days of lectures and one day of data reduction tutorials. Other events included a reception, dinner, hikes in the Magdalena Mountains and the Bosque del Apache, pool party and barbecue, and a very popular tour of the Very Large Array.
There were 139 registered participants from 16 countries ranging from Canada and Mexico to South Africa and Japan. Over half (63%) the participants were graduate students, the rest being scientific and engineering staff (14%), postdocs (10%), undergraduates (6%), faculty (5%), other (3%), and one high school teacher. Over a third (36%) of the participants were women.
New this year were both a reception on the evening of the first day of lectures and conducting some data reduction tutorials in NMIMT computer classrooms. Both were very successful and we hope to continue them in the future. Another change this year was the offer of three possible hikes; an "iron-man" hike in the Magdalena Mountains led by Rick Perley, a moderate hike in the Magdalena Mountains led by Craig Walker, and a bird-watching hike in the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge led by Eric Greisen.
Sixteen of the 24 lecturers were from NRAO. The Naval Research Lab contributed two lecturers and scientific staff personnel to run the low-frequency data reduction tutorial. There were two lecturers each from the University of New Mexico and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and one each from the University of Iowa and MIT-Haystack. We thank all the lecturers for giving their time and talents to the workshop.
We would like to thank NRAO and AUI for providing logistical and financial support and the majority of the lecturers. We are deeply grateful to New Mexico Tech for providing financial support and use of their facilities, and particularly the NMIMT Physics department. We would also like to thank the University of New Mexico for financial and logistical support and the Institute for Advanced Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory for financial support.
More information including photos, PowerPoint and PDF files of the lectures.