About the Symposium

The IAU Symposium on Brown Dwarfs will be hosted by the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaii in collaboration with several astronomical research institutions located in Hawaii (see SPONSORS). The Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaii is heavily involved in the development and management of the observatories at Haleakala and Mauna Kea. Its faculty has a long tradition in organizing international meetings, including the 27th Annual Meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, and the Bioastronomy 99 symposium. We plan to provide the attendees to this Symposium with the opportunity of visiting the world-class observatory of Mauna Kea in the Big Island of Hawaii.

The timing of the Symposium is perfect to take advantage of the strong interest among the community in gathering existing data on Brown Dwarfs as well as in planning for coordinated observations during the lifetime of Chandra, XMM, and SIRTF. Currently SIRTF is planned to launch in July 2002, and the 2MASS and DENIS surveys should be released in 2002 also. FAME, an astrometric mission, will launch in 2004 and this workshop will help select objects for its input catalog. The scientific mining of the huge databases provided by DENIS, 2MASS and SDSS is just starting, and we are sure that many new Brown Dwarfs will be reported at the Symposium. SIRTF will allow searches for Brown Dwarfs at longer wavelengths and can detect even cooler and fainter objects.

The proposed Symposium will bring together specialists from many countries who can exchange acquired experience, compare different surveys and follow-up observations, discuss theoretical ideas and models, discuss methodologic problems, and elaborate a strategy for further investigations. The Symposium would be important for addressing the main questions and problems in Brown Dwarf astrophysics, and to coordinate future efforts in the most efficient way.

Coordinating IAU Division: III

Proposing Commission: 51

Supporting Commissions: 9, 25, 26, 30, 34, 36, 37, 45