Scientific rationales

Since the recent opening of ALMA to the astrophysical community, large ground based observational facilities in the radio centimeter and millimeter range are preparing a new era of radioastronomy for the coming century.

In the (sub)millimeter range, ALMA has already provided exciting observations that chalenge our vision of, e.g., star and planetary systems formation processes. The NOEMA project upgrade of the Plateau de Bure interferometer will provide in the northern emisphere a welcomed complement to this world wide observatory.

In the near future, LOFAR and the local facility NENUFAR at Nançay Observatory will offer a prefiguration of the major Square Kilometer Array (SKA) project that will open a new window to the distant Universe.

All fields of Astrophysics are impacted, from planetary sciences to cosmology and including all scales of galactic studies. However, such large interferometer instruments are far from trivial to use, and getting the best scientific output from the time and ressources invested requires new skills from the coming generation of young astronomers.

The goal of the present school is to introduce PhD students and Post-Doc researchers to these exciting developments. They will have the occasion to follow courses from some of the top scientists in the field. Ample time for discussions is scheduled, as well as various hands on sessions.