Following the huge success of ISIMA 2010, the Kavli Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics is pleased to announce the launch of the second International Summer Institute for Modeling in Astrophysics (ISIMA), which will take place from June 27th - August 5th, 2011 in Beijing. The topic of ISIMA 2011 is "Star and Planet formation".


　  See http://isima.ucsc.edu/current.html for detail about ISIMA 2011, and http://isima.ucsc.edu/past.html to browse the archives of ISIMA 2010.

　  ISIMA will host up to 30 senior participants (15 faculty and 15 postdoctoral researchers) and 15 graduate students for the 6-weeks duration of the program. The overall philosophy of ISIMA is to
think "outside the box", by bringing together scientists and students from a broad range of backgrounds not only in astrophysics but in other related fields as well, and create an intense multi-disciplinary environment for innovative research. ISIMA is dedicated to training promising students and post-doctoral researchers, providing them with a unique research experience, and opportunities to meet world-caliber scientists and future colleagues.

　  The 6-week long program will begin with a 1-week workshop (June 27th - July 1st) on the selected ISIMA topic, with morning introductory lectures by established faculty and afternoon presentations on state of the art research. All presentations are by invitation only, although participation to the workshop is open to all. Daily meetings will be dedicated to discussing possible research projects for the students.

　  In the 5 following weeks, the students will be teamed with the senior participants and will be expected to make significant progress on their selected project. The program will run one or two seminars per day, while the rest of the day is dedicated to research. The students will present their research project to all program participants during the last 2 days of the program and are expected to publish the results, with their collaborators, either in the form of a refereed paper or a conference proceeding in the subsequent year.

　  Selection of all long-term participants is competitive. Selection of the students will be based on their academic standing, their current research interests and letters of recommendation. Selection of senior participants will be based on duration of stay, and perceived benefits
to ISIMA in terms of ensuring a wide and balanced variety of backgrounds and skills.

　  Financial participation to the program in the form of a studentship will be provided for all selected participating students, and in the form of per diem for all other long-term participants. Funding toward travel is provided on a case-by-case basis. Finally, selected shorter-term participants (less than 3 weeks) may be awarded some expenses based on availability of funds. Students will be provided with accommodation on campus. Help will be available to senior participants in finding accommodation, either in town or on campus.

　  We are looking forward to seeing you at KIAA in the summer of 2011. For more information and application forms, visit the web-site: http://isima.ucsc.edu/current.html

 The SOC:
　　Pascale Garaud (ISIMA Program director, UC Santa Cruz),
　  Doug Lin (KIAA director, and UC Santa Cruz)
　  Andi Burkert (Computational and theoretical astrophysics, University of Munich)
　  Ralf Klessen (Center of Astronomy, University of Heidelberg)
　  Shude Mao (National Astronomical Observatories of China; University of Manchester, UK)
　  Subhanjoy Mohanty (Physics and Astrophysics, Imperial College, London)
　  Yanqin Wu (Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto).