Lina Canas has been appointed as the new Membership Coordinator of the IAU. The position is at the IAU Headquarters, located in Paris, France, hosted by the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris (IAP). The Secretariat, led by the IAU Head of Administration Rosaria D’Antonio and under the direct supervision of the IAU General Secretary José Miguel Rodríguez Espinosa, is responsible for the central coordination and management of IAU’s international network. 

For the past eight years, Lina Canas has been working for the IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach (OAO) at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan in Tokyo, serving as the Director of the IAU OAO since 2019. As IAU Membership Coordinator, Lina Canas will be in charge of facilitating communication with the IAU’s more than 12 000 individual members in more than 85 countries around the world. The work will include coordinating elections, maintaining databases, managing publications, and supporting the organisation of meetings and General Assemblies, alongside other responsibilities.

“The IAU Secretariat is at the core of the IAU organisation, and we thrive on providing tailored support to our individual and national members, offices and centres” says José Miguel Rodríguez Espinosa. “We look forward to working with Lina Canas in this new role of IAU Membership Coordinator and together continuing to contribute to advancing IAU’s mission,” adds Rosaria D’Antonio. 

The IAU would like to thank the outgoing IAU Membership Coordinator/Database Manager, Madeleine Smith-Spanier, for her dedicated service to the Union over the past ten years.

More information

The IAU is the international astronomical organisation that brings together more than 12 000 active professional astronomers from more than 100 countries worldwide. Its mission is to promote and safeguard astronomy in all its aspects, including research, communication, education and development, through international cooperation. The IAU also serves as the internationally recognised authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies and the surface features on them. Founded in 1919, the IAU is the world's largest professional body for astronomers.

Links

• IAU Secretariat

Contacts

Rosaria D’Antonio 
Head of IAU Administration
Email: dantonio@iap.fr

Lars Lindberg Christensen
IAU Director of Communications
Cell: +1 520 461 0433/+49 173 38 72 621
Email: lars.christensen@noirlab.edu