The past few decades have seen a rapid increase in the number of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) discovered in the first billion years of the universe, thanks to ground-based wide-field surveys such as SDSS, Pan-Starrs1, DES, and HSC. These efforts have provided evidence that billion-solar-mass SMBHs existed in the early universe, challenging our understanding of the formation channels and early growth history of BH seeds.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has opened up new parameter spaces, revealing high-redshift analogs of Seyfert galaxies and resolving the starlight of quasar host galaxies. Anchored by these initial results, it is expected that a full census of SMBHs and host galaxies will be explored in the coming years, possibly reaching the seed BH mass range.

In this one-week conference, we propose to bring together experts from JWST and next-generation survey facilities such as Euclid, LSST, and Japan's Prime Focus Spectrograph to highlight ongoing efforts and future prospects for this research area.

This conference capitalizes on the unique research diversity of Kavli IPMU and the worldwide network of Kavli research institutes in astronomy and astrophysics.

The key topics of this conference are as follows:

• Discovery of high-redshift AGN at the observational frontiers
• Next-generation wide-field surveys and multi-wavelength facilities
• The role of obscuration in early SMBH growth
• The host galaxy and its large-scale environment
• Theoretical interpretation of early JWST results
• AGN as a transitional phase from starburst to quiescence

These two conferences are independently organized, but we aim to foster interaction between these two closely related fields. Participants are encouraged to join both conferences.

For additional questions, please see the conference website.

This year we celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the launch of the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the two and a half decades of science that have ensued. Chandra has been revolutionary for astronomy with its unprecedented and unparalleled sub-arcsecond angular resolution, its superb sensitivity to faint sources, and its high-resolution spectroscopy. This symposium will highlight and celebrate the discoveries made by Chandra, the unique capabilities of the mission, and the potential discoveries still remaining. Sessions topics will include:

• X-ray diagnostics of cosmic evolution
• The X-ray view of stellar evolution
• Exploring the cosmos with sky surveys, with a focus on the Chandra Source Catalog
• The sub-arcsecond revolution in X-ray astronomy
• Chandra synergies with current and future multi-wavelength missions

We are happy to announce to hold the MAXI 15 Year Workshop for the Time Domain Astronomy on December 10-12, 2024, at Nihon university, Tokyo Japan to celebrate the 15 years of successful operation of MAXI, or Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image, an X-ray all-sky monitor onboard the Japanese Experiment Module of the International Space Station.

In 1997, we organized the First MAXI Workshop at RIKEN entitled "All-Sky X-ray Observations of the Next Decade". From then, it took more than a decade for MAXI to start observing on orbit.Two decades later, time-domain astronomy is playing in the central arena of studies in the physics of the Universe, with MAXI watching the variable X-ray sky since August 15, 2009.

Currently, wide-sky discovery engines, like Swift, Fermi, EP and MAXI, provide the astrophysical transients to follow. Ground based facilities, such as ZTF and ATLAS, are also finding cornucopia of new sources to explore, augmented by recent additions of observatories for non-electromagnetic messengers, namely, gravitational waves and neutrinos.

For follow-up observations of these transients, telescopes with flexible scheduling capabilities are becoming more important. In space, telescopes on Swift, NuSTAR, NICER, and HXMT have been aggressively following transients. Automatic follow-up system on ISS, OHMAN, has been functioning. Small satellites such as GECAM and cubesats such as NinjaSat have been taking their unique roles. On the ground, small to medium sized telescopes such as GOTO are found to be very useful for these studies. Big observatories, both ground- or space-based, remain important in cases where sensitivities or high resolution are essential. Ground large quick telescope such as VLT/X-shooter, and GTC/ORISIS+ are very effective. Chandra with high positional resolution, XRISM with high energy resolution and IXPE and Polix with polarimeters are on orbit.

MAXI has been uniformly scanning the entire sky for the 15 years, and has been regularly reporting the discoveries to Astronomers Telegram and GCN; detections of outbursts of new or previously known X-ray sources including discoveries of 14 new galactic black holes binaries such as MAXI J1535-571, and MAXI J1820+070, a hundred of gamma-ray bursts, tens of giant stellar flares, and a couple of very rare phenomena, namely the relativistic tidal disruption event Swift J1644+57 and ultra luminous soft X-ray nova MAXI J0158-744. The accumulated scan data are processed to generate the 3MAXI catalogs of X-ray sources with 896 entries.

In this workshop, we hope to review the scientific results triggered by the MAXI observations. The topics include physics of high energy astrophysical sources, their emission, accretion, and outflow processes, in particular, those of black holes, neutron stars, and active stars. We also hope that this workshop will facilitate new research collaborations for the coming decade between theorists and observers at all wavelengths.

Invited speakers

• Jamie Kennea (Swift, USA)
• Sean Pike (NuSTAR, USA)
• Lian Tao (HXMT, China)
• Roger Romani (IXPE, Italy)
• Weimin Yuan (Einstein Probe, China)
• Bishwajit Paul (Polix, India)
• Jean-Luc Atteia (SVOM, France)
• Makoto Tashiro (XRISM, JAXA)
• Anna Ho (ZTF, USA)
• Keith Gendreau(TBD) (NICER, USA)

Koichi Wakata (astronaut, who mounted MAXI to JEM in orbit)

For additional questions, please see the conference website.

The primary objective of this workshop is to discuss data analysis techniques and prepare the astronomical community for the upcoming Cycle 2 General Observer (GO) Call for Proposals for XRISM. This workshop will consist of talks and hands-on sessions with experts from the XRISM team that will cover XRISM data analysis techniques and software, with the goal of maximizing the use of the unique high resolution spectroscopic and imaging data provided by XRISM.

The workshop will primarily focus on the scientific data analysis of XRISM observations, but will also cover techniques and software relevant to Cycle 2 proposals.

There is no registration fee for this workshop; however, registration is required. Please fill out the registration form by December 12, 2024 for in-person participation. The registration for virtual participation will remain open until Jan 31st, 2025. For space reasons, in-person attendance at the meeting is limited to 60 participants. If more than 60 participants have registered by December 12, then participation will be determined by a lottery. We will send a notification email by December 19 to those who register for in-person participation. If a space becomes available, there will be a waiting list for those who are not registered for in-person participation. If the demand for online participation is high, we may have to cap the number for practical reasons.

Registration for in-person attendees will include coffee breaks (with light refreshments).

Limited travel support is available for those who would otherwise not be able to attend; see the registration form for details.

For additional questions, please see the conference website.

Save the Date! We are pleased to announce that the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) will host a workshop on transients and time-domain astronomy titled "Transients From Space" (TFS) on March 11-13, 2025 at STScI in Baltimore, MD.

Transient science is entering an exciting new era of discovery. The 2020 Decadal Survey named Time Domain Astronomy (TDA) as a top priority, and NASA's Physics of the Cosmos (PCOS) program has prioritized Time Domain And Multi-Messenger (TDAMM) astrophysics. New discoveries will be greatly impacted by space-based telescopes, including, but not limited to, HST, JWST, Swift, Fermi, TESS, Euclid, UVEX, ULTRASAT, LISA, and Roman. These telescopes probe new phase space in time, wavelength, and redshift, thereby opening up new sub-fields. This STScI workshop will explore novel research made possible by these telescopes and discuss how the community can optimize scientific output in the future. It will feature invited talks, contributed talks, posters, discussion panels, and fun social activities.

Our key objectives aim to:

• Highlight and build off successful science driven by space telescope data and policies;
• Uncover regions of overlap among telescopes and discuss opportunities for cross-mission synergies;
• Identify community needs for research and collaboration, particularly in the upcoming era of big data;
• Optimize future space-based observations for the entire community.

• Early-Time Observations: SNe Ia, Fast Transients, Shock Breakout
• High-Energy Transients: GRBs, GW
• Progenitors: pre-explosion variability, stellar evolution
• Infrared Transients: dust, SNRs, echoes, TDEs, AGN
• High-z Transients: Lensed SNe, extreme explosions (SLSNe, PISNe), TDEs, AGN
• Survey Science: Euclid, Roman, UVEX, Big Data
• Theory of explosive transients and compact objects

Co-Chairs

Ori Fox (STScI), Armin Rest (STScI), Suvi Gezari (STScI), Lou Strolger (STScI)

SOC Members

Jennifer Andrews (Gemini Observatory), Ori Fox (STScI; Chair), Suvi Gezari (STScI; Co-Chair), Isobel Hook (Lancaster University), Rebekah Hounsell (GSFC), Patrick Kelly (University of Minnesota), Takashi Moriya (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan), Robert Quimby (San Diego State University), Armin Rest (STScI; Co-Chair), Lou Strolger (STScI; Co-Chair), Tea Temim (Princeton), Yossef Zenati (JHU/STScI)

LOC Members

Ori Fox, Suvi Gezari, Sherita Hanna, Victory Ramnarine, Armin Rest, Shemiah Smith, Lou Strolger Confirmed Invited Speakers

Federica Bianco (Delaware/Rubin), Azalee Bostroem (Arizona), Maria Teresa Botticella (INAF), Brad Cenko (Goddard), Wenlei Chen (OK State), Kishalay De (Columbia University/CCA/Flatiron Institute), Maria Drout (Toronto), Saurabh Jha (Rutgers), Josefin Larsson (KTH), Julie McEnery (Goddard), Brian Metzger (Columbia University/CCA/Flatiron Institute), Jeremy Perkins (Goddard), Justin Pierel (STScI), Ben Rose (Baylor), Melissa Shahbandeh (STScI), Nao Suzuki (LBL), Qinan Wang (MIT), Yuhan Yao (Berkeley)

Please visit our webpage for details, including upcoming deadlines.

When the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory was launched on November 20, 2004, its prime objective was to chase Gamma-Ray Bursts. Since then, the mission has far exceeded its original scientific goals. Swift discovered the first afterglows and host galaxies of short-hard GRBs, and a growing sample of events from the local Universe to the epoch of reionization, providing arcsecond positions, light curves, and spectra for more than 1,500 events.

Over time, Swift has become an unequalled Target of Opportunity machine for the astronomical community, thanks to a unique combination of sensitive instrumentation and operational flexibility that provides unprecedented observational capabilities: rapid response coupled with multi-wavelength monitoring of any class of transient/variable object.

After almost 20 years of operations, we think it a fitting occasion to revisit Swift's achievements and to put our mission in the context of the rapidly evolving fields of time-domain and multi-messenger astrophysics. Therefore, we are organizing the meeting "Celebrating 20 years of Swift Discoveries", to be held on March 24-28, 2025, in Florence, Italy, at the Firenze Fiera conference center.

Please mark your calendar to save the date!

Please visit our webpage for details, including upcoming deadlines.

A conference in honour of Enrico Cappellaro, Massimo Della Valle, Laura Greggio, Massimo Turatto

We are delighted to announce the conference: "An extraordinary journey into the Transient Sky: from restless progenitor stars to explosive multi-messenger signals. A conference in honour of Enrico Cappellaro, Massimo Della Valle, Laura Greggio and Massimo Turatto", which will be held from 1st to 4th April 2025, in Padua (Italy).

Supernovae play a key role in various issues in modern astronomy and cosmology. Current surveys have given an enormous boost to the study of transients and supernovae in particular, and it is essential to discuss the state-of-the-art before entering a golden age of the study of the transient Universe. Thanks to the synoptic surveys that will monitor every night the entire visible sky, from optical to radio, and the new-generation instrumentation that will make it possible to observe all the messengers associated with supernova explosions, from photons to neutrinos, from high-energy particles to gravitational waves, it will finally be possible to have both a statistically significant sample of events and a very detailed overview of individual events.

The study of supernovae in the Italian scientific community began in the 1960s with the work of Leonida Rosino and Roberto Barbon and subsequently received a great impulse thanks to Enrico Cappellaro, Massimo Della Valle, Laura Greggio and Massimo Turatto, who studied in Padua in the same years. With this international conference, we intend to celebrate their retirement by recalling their important contribution to the study of supernovae and discussing the still open challenges that we are ready to take up.

Reviewing the trajectory of our honorees, we will touch on topics such as the progenitors of supernovae, the search for supernovae and their rates, the supernova class zoo, supernovae in connection with gamma-ray bursts, and supernova observations in the age of multi-messenger Astronomy.

For additional questions, please see the conference website.

The unparalleled near-infrared capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) allow us to study distant galaxies in remarkable detail. This has ushered in a new era of galaxy evolution studies. With new knowledge of the properties of the stars, gas and dust that make up these early galaxies, we can now start to gain insights into the physical processes driving the assembly of the earliest galaxies, and how they evolve into their lower redshift descendants.

This conference will be an opportunity to highlight recent observational and theoretical results shedding new light on the detailed properties of the stellar populations and interstellar medium (ISM) of galaxies through the early phases of cosmic history. It will also serve as a forum for discussing how new JWST results are transforming our understanding of the formation and evolution of galaxies from early times through to the present day.

Scientific Focus:

• Nature of stellar populations in distant galaxies
• Properties of the interstellar medium across redshifts
• Chemical enrichment and build-up of dust across cosmic time
• Spatially resolved studies of galaxies and their environments
• Impact of galaxies on cosmic reionization
• How can simulations and theory help interpret the latest observations
• Feedback and regulating galaxy growth

Rebecca Bowler (Manchester); Andy Bunker (Oxford, co-chair); Alex Cameron (Oxford, co-chair); Emma Curtis-Lake (Hertfordshire); Richard Ellis (UCL); Laura Pentericci (INAF-Rome); Aayush Saxena (Oxford, co-chair); Stephen Wilkins (Sussex)

LOC:

Kit Boyett; Andy Bunker; Alex Cameron; Leanne O'Donnell; Gareth Jones; Aayush Saxena

For additional questions, please see the conference website.

The International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation is organised every three years under the guidance of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation. It is the principal international meeting for scientists working in all areas of relativity and gravitation.

The Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves is organised every two years under the guidance of the Gravitational Wave International Committee. It is the principal international meeting for scientists working in all areas of gravitational-wave science.

In 2025, the 24th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation (GR24) and the 16th Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves (Amaldi16) will be held together as a joint meeting, bringing together experts from across classical and quantum gravity, mathematical and applied relativity, gravitational-wave instrumentation and data-analysis, and multimessenger astronomy.

The GR24-Amaldi Meeting will be held as a primarily in-person event at the Scottish Event Campus, Glasgow. Online resources will be made freely available after the event. Meeting organisation is led by the Institute for Gravitational Research at the University of Glasgow and the Institute of Physics.

For additional questions, please see the conference website.