VWN-EUSJA excursion 28 September - 2 October

Starring: Science

Exploring Dutch astronomy and space technology

The Dutch Association of Science Journalists (VWN) organises an  international excursion on behalf of the members of the European Union of Science Journalists (EUSJA).

We invite our fellow journalists on a 5-day tour that will take you from the giant radiotelescopes in Westerbork to the ESA Space Centre Estec in Noordwijk, with many more highlights of Dutch science and technology in between.

Top-ranking astronomers will brief you on the latest news on the expanding cosmos, and you will have close encounters of the third kind with brand new space technology.

From our launch pad in university town Leiden, the group will visit locations across the country, including the city of Amsterdam and the famous Deltawerken in Zeeland.

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The presentations given by Huib and Leonid, as well as materials included in the JIVE press kit, are now available online at http://www.jive.nl/outreach/vwn.html.

To be eligable for this excursion, the usual EUSJA criteria apply. Journalists with a proven record in reporting on space science, astronomy or physics will be admitted with priority.

Registration closes on 1 August. The number of spaces available on the excursion is limited, so the organising committee will make a selection of the journalists who registered. In principle, we aim to welcome one journalist per EUSJA country. The final selection will be announced on 10 August at the latest, which should allow delegates plenty of time to make travel arrangements. 

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Final programme
  

Sunday

Lift-off from the Boerhaave Museum

from 13.00      check in at Hotel Nieuw Minerva.
                        The organizing committee will be present for assistance.
15.15               walk from hotel to Museum Boerhaave
15.30               welcome by Dirk van Delft, director of Museum Boerhaave and Govert                       Schilling, chairman of VWN 
15.40 – 16.35  tour of two exhibitions: ‘Hunt for absolute zero’, led by Ad Maas
                        and ‘The telescoop’, by Hans Hooijmaijers 
16.40               introduction by Govert Schilling
16.45 – 17.00  opening speach by the minister of Science and Education,
                        Ronald Plasterk
17.00 - 18.15   reception
19.00               walk to restaurant
19.15               dinner

Monday

TNO Space, Neeltje Jans, Middelburg

7.45              breakfast
8.00              bus ride to Den Haag 
8.35              visit to Airborne Composites, a company specialized in the
                     production of composite materials for aerospace application.
9.45              bus ride to Delft
10.00            visit to TNO Space, a high tech company that produces parts for
                     satellites and the International Space Station 
12.15 -13.45 bus ride to artificial island Neeltje Jans. An exhibition at Neeltje Jans
                     explains about the 'Deltawerken', the huge assembly of dams and barriers
                     that protects Zeeland against storm floods from the North Sea.  
15.30            bus ride to Middelburg.
16.00            we will visit a Volkssterrenwacht (exhibition '400th anniversary
                     of the telecope'), the Zeeuws Museum, and do a walking tour in
                     historical Middelburg  
19.00            dinner in Zeeuws Museum                
21.00 bus ride back to Leiden

Tuesday

Dutch Space, Leiden Astronomy

8.15 breakfast
09.00 bus ride to Da Vinci College
09.15 In the HiSparc-project, high schools build and maintain their own cosmic ray detector and collect real science data. Physicist Jan-Willem van Holten (NIKHEF) explains. Participant physics teacher Bart Vrijdaghs and his students will be present. 
10.00 bus ride to Dutch Space, a high tech company that builds parts for satellites and for the Space Station..
10.30 Dutch  Space company presentation
11.15 visit to clean room facility
12.30 lunch sponsored by Dutch Space
13.15 bus ride to historic Leiden Observatory  
13.30 tour of historic Leiden Observatory by Frank Israel
14.30 bus ride to Oort-building (new Leiden Observatory)
14.45 coffee and welcome by director Koen Kuijken.
15.00 tour of the Sackler-Lab for experimental astrophysics by Harold Linnartz; talk by Ewine van Dishoeck, scientific director of the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA).
16.00 break
16.15 talk by Robbert Dijkgraaf, president of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW)
16.45 presentations about exoplanets by Ignas Snellen (UL), Rens Waters (UvA) and Daphne Stam (SRON).
17.45 bus ride to hotel
18.45 walk to restaurant
19.00  dinner sponsored by the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA).
21.00 after-dinner speech by Vincent Icke about communicating astronomy to the public

Wednesday

Radio-astronomy: Astron/Jive/Wsri/Lofar

7.00            breakfast
7.30-9.45    bus ride to Dwingeloo, Drente
10.00          welcome Marco de Vos (adjunct director of Astron and head of R&D) and
                    Huib Jan van Langevelde (Director of Jive).
10.30           overview of Jive by Huib Jan van Langevelde and Leonid Gurvits; a tour of
                    the correlator; Q&A with Charles Yun and Bob Campbell.
12.00           bus ride to Westerbork, Astron-lunch on the bus.
12.45           Rene Vermeulen (director of the Radio Observatory) will give a tour of the
                    Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope
13.30 14.15 bus ride to Exloo
14.15-14.45 visit to Lofar-site
15.00-17.30 bus ride to Amsterdam
17.30           reception offered by the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW)
                    welcome by the KNAW vice president.
                    presentation by prof George Miley, vice president of the IAU and Royal
                    Netherlands Academy Professor.
18.20           walk to embarkation point 
18.30          dinner on sight-seeing boat
20.30           walk to Artis Zoo for Planetarium show. 
21.30           bus ride back to Leiden

Thursday

Estec, Heineken-awards

8.15                  breakfast  (you have to check out of your room.
                         Take all your luggage with you on the bus)
9.00                  bus ride to Estec Space Center in Noordwijk
9.30                  presentations about ESA science missions (Herschel/Hifi and more)              
11.30                tour of Estec (Concurrent Design Facility, Propulsion Lab, Test Center)
13.00                lunch and interview opportunities with telescope experts
14.00                bus ride to Schiphol to drop off participants on early flights
14.45                bus ride to Beurs van Berlage, Amsterdam.
15.30                Heineken Award Ceremony in Beurs van Berlage.
                         The Heineken Awards are among the most prestigious science awards
                         in the Netherlands 

This conlcudes the VWN-EUSJA excursion. You'll have to arrange for your own transport to Schiphol Airport (it is a five minute walk from Beurs van Berlage to Amsterdam Central station, where you can get on a train to Schiphol every 15 minutes).