18th December 2020

Dear IAUS 361 participants and Massive Stars community,

We want to update you on our planning for IAUS 361, originally planned for May 2020 and postponed to May 2021.  It has become clear that the global health and travel situation will not be sufficiently improved in the next few months to enable us to host IAUS361 as planned in May 2021.  There is very encouraging news about the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, but it will take some months before we see the effects of this.

We are still aiming to have a face-to-face IAU Symposium at some point in the future instead of “Going Virtual”, which many of us feel is not optimal for a large 200- or 300-person IAUS, as planned.  We repeat that the conditions we require to hold the meeting are:
(i)  it is safe to do so;
(ii) we are allowed to have a large gathering by local Irish authorities; and
(iii) air travel is up and running, and the vast majority of participants are allowed to travel by their local employers.

If we can go ahead, the Symposium will take place between September 2021 and February 2022.  It is too early now to say if and when this can happen, so we continue to wait and hope.  If the developments in the next 3 months are positive, best-case scenario, we will aim for a meeting in September 2021.  We will of course take into account dates for other relevant meetings when planning our Symposium.

We will be in touch in the new year about plans for the “Virtual Preview meeting”, to be focused on previously allocated contributions from the more junior participants.

Best regards,

Jorick and Jonathan – on behalf of the SOC/LOC