DIVISION X: RADIO ASTRONOMY

(Radioastronomie)

PRESIDENT: James M. Moran

BOARD: K. Anantharamaiah, L. Baath, E. Berkhuijsen, L. Bronfman, R. Davis, P. Dewdney, H. Dickel, K. Johnston, L. Litvinenko, J. Marcaide, G. Nicolson, L. Padrielli, N. Rendong, R. Schilizzi, J. Whiteoak

Commission 40: Radio Astronomy

Commission 40 held two business meetings and sponsored two sessions of reports from observatories. An average of 35 people attended the business meetings and about 60 attended the observatory reports sessions.

1. Division Officers

The special nominating committee, which consisted of J. Moran (chair), L. Padrielli, N. Rendong, R. Schilizzi, and J. Whiteoak, presented its recommendations for a new vice chair and replacements of seven members of the organizing committee/board. The attendees at the business meeting unanimously approved the slate of nominations.

The new vice president is L. Rodriguez (Mexico).

The new members of the Organizing Committee are:

F. Combes (France); P. Diamond (UK; W.M. Goss (USA); Green (Australia); M. Ishiguro (Japan); A.P. Rao (India); J. Turner (USA)

The continuing members of the Organizing Committee are

L. Bronfman (Chile) ; P. Dewdney (Canada); L. Litvinenko (Ukraine) ;J. Marcaide (Spain); J. Moran (USA, ex President); G. Nicolson (South Africa); L. Padrielli (Italy); N. Rendong (China); R. Schilizzi (Netherlands)

The retiring members are

K. Anantharamaiah (India); L. Baath (Sweden); E. Berkhuijsen(Germany); R. Davis (UK); H. Dickel (USA); K. Johnston (USA); J. Whiteoak (Australia)

L. Padrielli (Italy) was confirmed as the new Commission 40/ Division X president, replacing J. Moran (USA).

2. New Members

Fifty-four new members were accepted into the commission. The membership roster now stands at 913.

3. Working Group On RFI Mitigation

A proposal for a new working group on the subject of RFI mitigation was presented by R. Ekers, J. Whiteoak, W. Baan, P. Dewdney, A. Tzioumis, and J. Ponsonby. They noted that there are important issues to be discussed that extend beyond the regulatory function of IUCAF. The new WG would promote the following activities: technological solutions for RFI mitigation, regulatory innovations, radio-quiet zones, institutional innovations, and partnership with the URSI working group on interference excision technology. The working group would also serve as an interface between IAU/URSI and IUCAF to the OECD/CSTP Task Force. This proposal was approved by the commission. Recommended for initial membership were A. Tzioumis (chair), W. Baan, A. Boomstra, D. Emerson, R. Fisher, T. Gergely, M. Ohishi, and J. Ponsonby.

4. IAU Representatives To Other Organizations

IUCAF: R.J. Cohen (UK), D. Emerson (US), and K. Tapping (Canada) will replace outgoing members A.R. Thompson (USA) and B. Doubinski (Russia). The continuing representatives are M. Ohishi (Japan) and S. Ananthakrishnan (India).

ITU: M. Ohishi (Japan) and T. Gergely (USA) will replace A.R. Thompson (USA) and J. Whiteoak (Australia).

URSI: L. Padrielli (Italy) will replace J. Moran (USA).

5 . Reports From Working Groups And Related Organizations

Reports from the following working groups were made:

Astrophysically Important Lines (M. Ohishi)

Astronomy from the Moon (N. Kaifu)

Global VLBI (R. Schilizzi)

Binary System Nomenclature (H. Dickel)

and other organizations:

WRC-2000 (Gergely)

IUCAF (Ruf)

6. General Discussion

Following the instructions of the IAU EC, the issue of the nature and structure of the commission was discussed. There was a strong sentiment among the members present that the commission represents a cohesive group, and there was no enthusiasm expressed for dividing it into a group of smaller commissions along wavelength or other lines. However, if the Union as a whole were to move in the direction of strengthening the division structure, then it might be effective to rely more heavily on working groups of the division for specific issues.

The attendees lamented the fact that, in contrast to previous General Assemblies, there were no scientific sessions sponsored by the commission. There was a strong recommendation to reinstitute this type of session at the next General Assembly, in addition to the Observatory Reports. Recommendations for future scientific symposia included one on neutron stars. The commission president was charged with the task of reminding the signatories of the "Kyoto Declaration" of their promised active support for activities to alleviate RFI.

7. Observatory Reports

Reports on activities within various observatories, countries, and projects were presented. They included NRAO/VLBA and EVLA (R.C. Walker), EVN/JIVE (R. Schilizzi), Australia (R. Ekers), GMRT (K. Ananthakrishnan), Japan (H. Hirabayashi), MERLIN (A. Lyne), Submillimeter Array (J. Moran), MRAO (M. Jones), Canada (P. Dewdney), Molonglo Observatory (Green), Nancay Observatory (van Driel), MPIfR (Wielebinski), China (X. Hong), NRAO/Green Bank (P. Jewell), NRAO/ALMA (A. Wooten), Submillimeter Telescope (T. Wilson), Sardinia Radio Telescope (L. Padrielli), Brazil (P. Kaufmann), Torun Observatory (A. Kus), Ratan 600 (Parijskij), Allen Telescope (J. Tarter), Westerbork (W. Baan), and Radioastron (N. Kardashev).