Awareness Conference "Hot topics in Astrophysics"
Sofia, September 25-October 1st,  2014

This conference brought together students from all over Europe,
particularly from the Eastern part, to interact with senior scientists,  
and  discuss the recent progress, and major open questions in Astrophysics. 

About 50 participants gathered in a nice hotel in central Sofia, 
including those students who had observed at the Rozhen Observatory the week before.  
They came  from 11 different countries in Europe or EU associated countries, 
with obviously a larger participation from Bulgaria, in particular those scientists working in Sofia.

The program included  practical work in the afternoons, with work  on VO tools in Astrophysics,
as well as sessions on how to best write a good telescope time request. 
The presentation of the proposals on the last day of the meeting, with the many questions about 
the availability and Access to EUropean  telescopes demonstrated the need and interest in such a  program. 
The meals taken together, and the various evening social programs, kindly organised by our local hosts, 
created a nice ambiance and developped relations which will continue well beyond the school, 
setting seeds for future scientific collaborations. 



The conference room in Sofia


Lecturers


Michel Dennefeld (Paris): Telescopes and Instrumentation
Iulia Iafratte (Trieste): VO and practical work
Heidi Korhonen (Copenhagen): Stellar physics
Roger Ferlet (Paris): Exoplanets
Henry McCrackent (Paris): Cosmology and Euclid 
Sandra Savaglio (Munich): Formation and evolution of galaxies
Martin Ward (Durham): Active Galactic Nuclei


 Program

Thursday,  September 25th
	Morning: Stellar physics, Instrumentation
	Afternoon:   Proposal writing, and Data reductions

Friday,  September 26th
	Morning:  Stellar Physics, Cosmology	
Afternoon: Proposal writing, and Data reductions

Saturday,  September 27th  
	Morning:  Cosmology, AGN's
	Afternoon: Proposal writing,  and  practical work

Monday,  September 29th
	Morning: Galaxies, Exoplanets
	Afternoon: VO  Practical work and Data reduction
		       
Tuesday, September 30th
Morning: Galaxies, Exoplanets
Afternoon: VO Practical work, Preparation of the Presentations

Wednesday, October 1st
Presentation of the results
Evaluation of the telescope time requests
General Discussion