There is a public misconception that the 2006 General Assembly (GA) of the IAU did nothing other than to demote Pluto. In fact, there were a dozen or more parallel strands. By going to most of the education sessions, I missed most of the sessions on my research interests. And there was always the temptation to go off and explore Prague, which is one of the most interesting cities in the world -- even when inundated with tourists, and with a McDonald's on every corner. In our weekend free time, there was a session and city walk on mathematics, physics, and astronomy in Prague, with everything from Tycho's grave to Einstein's favourite cafe.
There were two special sessions on education and development. One was a two day session on Innovations in Teaching and Learning astronomy; there is a summary available at: http://astro.cas.cz/nuncius/supplement10.html#ros
The proceedings are being edited by Jay Pasachoff (US) and Rosa Maria Ros (Spain) and published by Cambridge University Press.
There was also a two day session on Astronomy for Developing Countries; itis described in the ninth issue of the daily newspaper of the IAU GA at:http://astro.cas.cz/nuncius/nsiii_09.pdf
This will give you a sense of the excellent internal press coverage thatwe had at the GA. It certainly helped us to keep up with the sessionsthat we missed.
In addition, there were some important sessions on Communicating Astronomy,and on plans for International Year of Astronomy 2009 (the 400th anniversaryof the development of the astronomical telescope). But I hope that DennisCrabtree (NRC-HIA) will report on those, since he is a leader in bothefforts. And you can follow the website:http://www.communicatingastronomy.org
One of the forty commissions (interest groups) of the IAU is Commission 46: Education and Development. Its meetings included a half-day session,organized by George Greenstein (US) and Bruce Partridge (US) on the training of astronomers. Several speakers pointed out that the majority of astronomy graduates, at both the undergraduate and graduate level, do notend up in careers in astronomy. This is partly because of the limited number of astronomy positions, and partly because well-trained astronomers have the generic skills to succeed in a wide variety of careers.
One feature of this IAU GA was special events for "young astronomers", which included graduate students and PDFs. The IAU is keen to serve young astronomers, as well as more established ones. There was a very successful lunch at which over 200 young astronomers met with experienced astronomers (such as me) to address concerns which were important to them. Notes were kept, and I look forward to seeing them on the IAU website.
There was also a "consulting service" at which young astronomers could meet one-on-one with experienced astronomers to get advice on professional and career issues.
At the business meeting of Commission 46, Magda Stavinschi (Romania) was elected President, and Rosa Ros (Spain) was elected Vice-President. We thank Jay Pasachoff (US) and Barrie Jones (UK) for filling these two positions, so effectively, in the 2003-2006 triennium. For more information about Commission 46, see our website at: http://physics.open.ac.uk/IAU46/
Canada's representative on IAU Commission 46 is Jayanne English, University of Manitoba, and Chair of the CASCA Education and Outreach Committee. She replaces me in this position.
John Percy (University of Toronto, jpercy@utm.utoronto.ca)