In mid-August, a summer school was held in Victoria, BC to educate astronomers from across the EM spectrum about the techniques of observing at submillimetre and millimetre wavelengths. The school also highlighted forthcoming facilities such as the upgraded James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, the Herschel Space Observatory, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, Expanded Very Large Array and the Extended Submillimeter Array. The school was organized by the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Victoria and co-sponsored by the National Reserach Council and the Canadian Space Agency.
The workshop intention was to bring together and help build the future foundations of the community in Canada in order that they are ready to do science with these new facilities in a very competitive international context. The workshop was a significant step in that direction as the high level of open personal interactions between the students and speakers indicated (one comment heard was that it was sometimes difficult to tell who were the students and who the instructors were). Feedback from participants and speakers alike indicate that the summer school was a great success. In spite of the attractions of Victoria in August, the meeting room was packed to capacity for every session over the four days.
In all, 51 participants took part in the meeting. The majority were graduate students, but many undergraduates, postdocs and even some faculty were present. Most of the 18 speakers stayed for the duration of the meeting. Although the meeting was targeted toward Canadian astronomers and the facilities to which we have access, there was a significant international presence, including seven registrants from the US and two from Europe. The enthusiasm of the speakers and participants alike made for an enjoyable and educational school. The effectiveness of the talks was increased by the high level of preparation put forth by our speakers, who coordinated with each other to ensure that material was not omitted or excessively repeated.
Special recognition goes to Sean Dougherty of DRAO who not only opened the meeting with an excellent lecture on the Basics of Radio Astronomy, but also contributed the final facility talk four days later on the EVLA Project. The LOC extends our thanks to all the speakers for contributing their time to make the summer school such a success. Several students expressed the desire to see another such school held in the period just before ALMA becomes operational in 2009.
The final talks, supplemental material and the group photo are linked off the meeting website at http://www.hia-iha.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/astroschool (follow the link to "NEW - Documents").