50 years ago Émile-Jacques Blum, Peter Mezger and Harry van der Laan had a vision of a meeting where young Europeans in radio astronomy could meet each other and exchange their experiences. The first Young European Radio Astronomers Conference (YERAC) was held in Paris in 1968, during the height of student and workers protests. Since then, YERAC has been held nearly every year, hosted by the various European Radio Astronomical Institutes.
Still today YERAC brings together early-career astronomers and engineers from all over Europe and beyond. For many of the participants YERAC is their first international meeting and provides them the good opportunity to get practice giving talks about their research. Many future leaders in radio astronomy started to form their international carrier in the informal and supportive environment of a YERAC.
RadioNet has assured the continuation of YERAC conferences in the last 15 years, by supporting the event organisers and participants. Also this year YERAC has received generous funding from RadioNet – a project that received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730562.
This year YERAC is held at Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica – INAF in Bologna (Italy). The meeting was opened by Prof. Tiziana Venturi, Director of INAF and RadioNet Board Chair. The guest of honour Prof. van der Laan has revealed the secrets of birth of YERAC 50 years ago! The week 18-22 September 2017 is scheduled with exciting presentations from 34 young radio astronomers from Europe, South Korea, Russia and South Africa. RadioNet and INAF are proud to host them all !
Link to YERAC 2017
History of YERAC