Third IAA Symposium on SEARCHING
FOR LIFE SIGNATURES

Call for Papers

The International Academy of Astronautics created a SETI committee in the seventies now established in Permanent Study Group. Its role is to develop studies, establish protocols to be followed by SETI scientists in the detection, analysis, verification, announcement, and response to signals from extraterrestrial civilizations, call for symposia and cooperate with the scientific community worldwide.

SETI (the "Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence") refers to the experiments intended to find either radio or optical signals from extraterrestrial societies situated on planets around other stars. The largest radio telescopes world-wide have occasionally pursued SETI searches since 1960, in most cases hunting for signals near in frequency to 1420 MHz (the emission line of neutral hydrogen). Optical SETI searches have been pursued since the 1990s. These attempts to detect extraterrestrial signals are called "Passive SETI".
In recent years, a new kind of SETI, called "Active SETI" or "METI" (the "Messaging to ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence"), has been discussed by radio astronomers and has actually been attempted in a few cases: it consists of deliberately transmitting signals to enhance the probability of making contact with other hypothetical galactic technological civilizations. In addition, the discovery since 1995 of more than 500 extrasolar planets makes it clear that both Passive and Active SETI may now be "targeted" towards exoplanets that are situated within habitable zones, further increasing the probability of a SETI success.

In conclusion, it is now timely to gather a large conference of experts in SETI, biosignatures, the search for terrestrial exoplanets and related disciplines from all over the globe to openly discuss the strategies of both Passive and Active SETI. These are the goals of the "Searching for Life Signatures" Conference that will take place in St. Petersburg, June 27th thru 30th, 2011, in the week just prior to the "ORIGINS" IAU Commission 55 Conference that will take place at Montpellier, France, July 3rd thru 8th, 2011.

Monday, June 27:	Morning: PASSIVE SETI - Current and Near-Future Searches. Afternoon: PASSIVE SETI - Technological and Societal Issues.
Tuesday, June 28:	Morning: ACTIVE SETI (or METI) - Proposals and Technological Issues. Afternoon: ACTIVE SETI (or METI) - Societal Issues.
Wed., June 29:	Morning: Radio astronomy and SETI from the Moon's Far Side and More. Afternoon: Extrasolar Planets, Biosignatures and SETI.
Thurs., June. 30:	Morning: Future Space Missions to detect Extrasolar Habitable Planets. Afternoon: General Debate and "Conference Declaration". Evening: Conference Dinner.
Friday, July 1st:	Late morning and afternoon: Visit (by bus) to the Svetloe radiotelescope.

Contant Jean-Michel (Chairman)	International Academy of Astronautics, France
Finkelstein Andrey (Co-chairman)	Institute of Applied Astronomy of Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia
Maccone Claudio (Scientific secretary)	International Academy of Astronautics, Italy
Kardashev Nikolay	Astro Space Center of Lebedev Physical Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia
Gindilis Lev	Sternberg State Astronomical Institute of the Moscow State University, Russia
Ventskovsky Oleg	State Enterprise "Yuzhnoye Design Office" (European Representation), Ukraine
Zaitsev Alexander	Kotel'nikov Institute of Radioengineering and Electronics of Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia
Dumas Stephane	SETI League Coordinator for Eastern Canada, Quebec, Canada

Finkelstein Andrey (Chairman) Shuygina Nadia (Secretary) Lysenkov Eugene Talvik Alexandra Valyaev Valery Salnikov Alexander

The conference will take place at the Institute of Applied Astronomy of RAS, 10 Kutuzova quay, St. Petersburg, Russia.

The language of the conference is English. Contributed paper can be submitted for oral presentation or as poster. Depending upon the number of papers offered, it is hoped to provide 30 minutes for invited papers and 15 minutes for contributed ones, including discussion. For oral presentation a multimedia projector will be in your disposition. Area up to 1.2 square meters will be provided for poster. Submitted papers are reviewed by the Program Committee and selected on the basis of their suitability for inclusion in the program. The Committee reserves the right to reject paper or to change form of its presentation. It is supposed that Proceedings of the Conference will be published soon after the end of the Conference. Abstracts (400 words max) must be submitted to seti2011@ipa.nw.ru. Deadline for Abstract Submission is 31.03.2011.

In case you are going to attend the Conference please fill in the following form and send it to the address seti2011@ipa.nw.ru before the 31st of March, 2011. Please, fill in the following data in the form:

Registration fee for the conference is 250 Euro (for foreign participants) and 150 Euro (for participants from Russia). It should be paid in cash at the registration desk. The registration fee includes conference materials, coffee breaks, welcome party, transportation and dinner while visit to "Svetloe" observatory, book of abstracts, conference program, volume of Proceedings. Registration fee accompanying persons is 150 Euro.

A visitor to the Russian Federation must have a valid passport (at least six months beyond the intended day of departure) and a visa. There are three kinds of visas that are of relevance for the meeting: (1) a tourist visa, (2) a business visa for citizens of European Union, (3) a business visa for citizens of non-European countries. A tourist visa and a business visa for citizens of European countries is valid for an exact number of days up to a maximum of 30 days (29 days for U.S. citizens), covered by proof of pre-booked accommodation in Russia for the entire period. A business visa for citizens of non-European countries is valid for one month and also requires pre-booked accommodation. The preferred visa type is the tourist visa, because it has a faster processing time within Russia (about a week). In the case, however, that your employer only reimburses travel costs on a business visa, this will be the visa type you have to apply for (processing time of one month or more in Russia).

The company OASIS Travel & Congress Services will take care of organizing visa invitations for the Meeting. Please fill in the visa form and then e-mail or fax it to the OASIS company. An accompanying person has to fill in his/her own separate form. Each participant should attach a copy the main page of valid passport.

Upon receiving the filled in form OASIS will go through the process of having an invitation letter stamped by the Migration Service of the Russian Federation. A tourist visa invitation could be issued very fast (within one week) and faxed to a participant. Officially authorized business visa invitation is issued a month later and it should be faxed to the number given in the form. However, knowing that several Russian Consulates only accept the original version of the invitation letter, the original invitation letter will also be sent to a participant by regular mail on a requirement. With the letter (or fax) in hand, you can apply for your visa at the Russian Consulate (in your country of residence) that you listed in your application form. Please check with your Russian Consulate on the required forms and visa processing fees. The processing time for getting your passport visa stamped at the consulate is usually less than ten business days; in rare cases it can take up to a month.

An invitation fee for the tourist visa and for the business visa depends on visa and hotel type The fee could be collected at the meeting's registration desk. There will be a representative of OASIS at the registration desk who shall receive the payments for the (possible) invitation fee and the hotel room.

Please fill in the following form and send it to OASIS Travel & Congress Services:

Family name
First name
Second name
Type of visa requested
Date of birth
Place of birth
Nationality
Passport :
Date of passport issue
Date of passport expiry
Country of residence
Consulate address (in country of residence)

Participants of the conference will be accommodated in the hotels of St. Petersburg. The company OASIS Travel & Congress Services will take care of organizing accommodation Please fill in the following form and send it to OASIS Travel & Congress Services:

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