Circulars

First announcement (September 2019)


Dear colleagues, registration is now open for our Conference on
“Growing black holes: accretion and mergers”, to be held in Kathmandu, Nepal, April 19-24, 2020.

The focus of the conference is the multi-messenger astrophysics of accreting and merging black holes.

Main Topics:

    • Black holes of all masses
    • Physics of accretion and jets – Galactic systems, IMBHs, and AGN
    • Compact object mergers at all scales, from stellar mass to supermassive, including GW emission
    • Stellar tidal disruption events
    • Feedback: jets and outflows
    • Galaxy – BH scaling relations
    • Collapsars: black hole formation and GRBs
    • Multimessenger astrophysics
    • Mission Highlights and upcoming missions

Important Deadlines

Location
The conference will be held at the Hotel Radisson in Kathmandu. This five-star hotel is located within walking distance to the heart of the city, the Royal Palace, the historic Durbar Square and several other temples and historic sites. We have managed to secure a conference room rate, starting at 143 USD/night (including all taxes), if booking is made before March 1, 2020 . Alternatively, a variety of other hotels at all rates is available in Kathmandu. Given the very low overall price level in Nepal, attending this conference will be rather inexpensive.

Flights
We strongly recommend booking flights to Kathmandu early, as prices are expected to rise significantly the months just before the conference.
For instance, at the time of writing (Sept 1, 2019), flights to Kathmandu start from 750-900 Euro (Frankfurt, with Etihad/Emirates/Singapur/LH airlines), 850 Euro (Washington DC, with Etihad & Emirates), 800 Euro from LA with Turkish or China Southern Airlines, 600-750 Euro (Sydney, with China Eastern or Cathay Pacific), 1000 Euro (Mexico City with China Southern), 500 Euro (Moscow, with flydubai or Etihad), and 400 Euro (Beijing, with China Southern). This is just to give a few examples.

Conference Fee
The conference fee will be 350 EUR (including lunches, coffee breaks, welcome reception and conference banquet, use of the hotel conference facilities and a sightseeing) if registered before the deadline of 2020.01.01. After that, late registration will only be possible, if any space is left. The fee then is 400 EUR. We strongly encourage early registration and flight booking.
A reduced fee of 250 EUR is foreseen for colleagues who work in SAARC countries and a further reduced fee of 200 EUR is foreseen for students (PhD, master degrees).

Please note, that no financial support is available for participants.

Final announcement (May 2022)

This is the final announcement of the conference on “Growing black holes: accretion and mergers”, in memory of Sergio Colafrancesco (Kathmandu, May 15-20, 2022).
The final program and all other relevant information is also available at our conference website at https://nepal.oas.inaf.it

Conference Fee
The conference fee will be collected in cash during the registration in Euro or NPR (we cannot process credit cards). Cash machines and currency exchange offices are available at the airport, at/near the conference hotel and in the city.
The conference fee is 350 EUR (47000 NPR) for all participants, except 250 EUR (33000 NPR) for SAARC citizens and 200 EUR (27000 NPR) for students.

Talks
We would like to encourage all speakers, and especially review speakers, to include at least one viewgraph with a broader introduction into the field. We will have about 30 local students attending, who may not yet have worked in the respective field. We would also like to encourage everyone, to seek the interaction with the local students. Many of them did not yet have the chance to attend an international conference before.

Posters
All poster presenters can present their poster during a 2 minutes short talk, if they wish. Posters size must be not larger than A1 in a portrait printout form: 59 cm (width) x 84 cm (height).

Conference venue, registration, and welcome reception
The conference will be held at the 5* hotel Radisson, P.O. Box 2269 Lazimpat, Kathmandu, Tel: +977 1 4411818.
Registration starts on May 15 at 16:30, followed by a welcome reception with drinks and snacks from 18:00-21:30.
There are many restaurants within walking distance of the hotel and especially in the lively downtown area of Thamel.
Most participants will arrive later, but those who arrive on May 13 or earlier: please note, that local elections will be held on this date with the possibility of some road closures.

Transfer from the airport
All participants who booked at the conference hotel have their airport transfer included, provided that the hotel is informed about the arrival time and flight number in advance. Otherwise, taxis are available at the airport at a fixed rate depending on the destination within the city.

Visa on arrival
The majority of all nationals can obtain their (tourist) visa on arrival at the Tribhuvan international airport. At the time of writing, there are no entry restrictions due to Covid-19. The latest information is always available at Online Tourist Visa and we encourage all participants to re-check the immigration rules a few days before their departure. A two-week visa-on-arrival is 30 USD, and it is advised to bring that amount in cash. Some nationalities (SAARC citizens, Chinese nationals) and children underthe age of 10 get their visa free of charge.

Looking forward to meeting everyone in Kathmandu soon.

2022 Conference Poster