Emilio Javier Alfaro – författare

TheinternationalconferenceHowdoestheGalaxywork? Agalactictertulia rd th with Don Cox and Ron Reynolds, was held during the week of 23 to 27 of June 2003 in the marvelous city of Granada, Spain. This week marked the beginningofoneofthehottestsummersthatwehaveeverlived, butincontrast, the meeting was one of the coolest events that we can remember! First, it certainly wasa?rstclassscienti?creunion, withanexcellent program, talented speakers, and alive discussions in a friendly atmosphere. Second, the whole event was embedded in the passionate Andalucian way of life, a true tertulia, well seasoned with tasty tapas and perfectly marinated in cool and dry sherry wine. Third, the celebration was framed by some of the most beautiful settings thatonecanimagine; weenjoyedthemagni?centsplendoroftheAlhambra,the unique Muslim-Jewish-Christian ?avor of the Albaicin, and the magical gipsy heartbeat of Sacromonte. Last but not least, all discussions, whether they were duringthesessionsoratabartable,weresprinkledwiththecharmandwitofthe twoguestsofhonor: DonCoxandRonReynolds. Theideaofhavingascienti?c feast to celebrate their 60th birthday in Granada was actually conceived at a bar table in Seville, with plenty of manzanilla at hand, a couple of summers ago.That, perhaps, was the dif?cult part of the project. The rest was relatively easy to achieve because Don and Ron are not only remarkable astronomers but they are also great human beings. Indeed, we had a very positive response from all parties involved: every person we talked to was enthusiastic about the celebration, and wanted to give their own point of view in this tertulia.

This book gathers the invited conferences presented at the Thirteenth Joint European and National Astronomical Meeting (JENAM) organized by the - ropean Astronomical Society (EAS) and the Spanish Astronomical Society (Sociedad Española de Astronomía, SEA) and hosted by the Instituto de - trofísica de Andalucía (IAA - CSIC). The event, held from September 13 to 17, 2004 in Granada, was at the same time the Sixth Scienti c Meeting of the SEA. The proceedings of such national meetings are traditionally collected in a series of books generically entitled Highlights of Spanish Astrophysics, which will be momentarily interrupted in this occasion as the contributions of the Spanish astronomers to the meeting share the present publication with those of their colleagues from other European countries or, to be more exact, from countries all over the world. The meeting brought together, indeed, more than 450 participants from 30 different countries, making it one of the most successful JENAMs ever celebrated. This success was undoubtedly due to the fact that, as readily seen from the titles of the parallel sessions, the scienti c scope of this JENAM reached, for the st time, all elds of astronomy and astrophysics. In fact, there was still another parallel session opened to tea- ers and professionals of popularisation in astronomy whose proceedings are published elsewhere.

TheinternationalconferenceHowdoestheGalaxywork? Agalactictertulia rd th with Don Cox and Ron Reynolds, was held during the week of 23 to 27 of June 2003 in the marvelous city of Granada, Spain. This week marked the beginningofoneofthehottestsummersthatwehaveeverlived, butincontrast, the meeting was one of the coolest events that we can remember! First, it certainly wasa?rstclassscienti?creunion, withanexcellent program, talented speakers, and alive discussions in a friendly atmosphere. Second, the whole event was embedded in the passionate Andalucian way of life, a true tertulia, well seasoned with tasty tapas and perfectly marinated in cool and dry sherry wine. Third, the celebration was framed by some of the most beautiful settings thatonecanimagine; weenjoyedthemagni?centsplendoroftheAlhambra,the unique Muslim-Jewish-Christian ?avor of the Albaicin, and the magical gipsy heartbeat of Sacromonte. Last but not least, all discussions, whether they were duringthesessionsoratabartable,weresprinkledwiththecharmandwitofthe twoguestsofhonor: DonCoxandRonReynolds. Theideaofhavingascienti?c feast to celebrate their 60th birthday in Granada was actually conceived at a bar table in Seville, with plenty of manzanilla at hand, a couple of summers ago.That, perhaps, was the dif?cult part of the project. The rest was relatively easy to achieve because Don and Ron are not only remarkable astronomers but they are also great human beings. Indeed, we had a very positive response from all parties involved: every person we talked to was enthusiastic about the celebration, and wanted to give their own point of view in this tertulia.