RATIONALE
Whether observing with a single antenna or a telescope array, Radio Astronomy has always caused a great impact on our knowledge of the Universe. Since 1950's, radio astronomers working on the issue of spatial resolution have been seeking for improvements in their measurements through a technique known as interferometry, because otherwise the sizes needed for the radio telescopes would be too large and, therefore, increasingly difficult to build.

That is why the 4th edition of INPE's Advanced School in Astrophysics will focus on Advanced Radio Astronomy. Simply put, it will offer an excellent opportunity to discuss particularities of modern radio astronomy in the realm of Astronomy: theory on modern radio interferometry, new radio receiver technologies, modern radio facilities, either already operating or planned for the upcoming decade. Also, potential applications are considered in the context of traditional and new scientific challenges such as the origin and evolution of the Universe, origin of life, new planetary systems, star formation, search for extraterrestrial intelligence, molecular synthesis, dark energy, pulsar investigations, energy storage-release processes, and gravitational wave detection.

As in many other fields of experimental research, Radio astronomy progressed in parallel with modern technologies, sometimes borrowing from them, sometimes pushing to a new lever. This partnership can be clearly seen in the development of receivers, cryogenics and state-of-the-art electronics. The free-fall trajectory of prices of electronic components in the last 20-30 years, particularly the Low Noise Amplifiers (LNA), made possible to build extremely sensitive receivers that allows for present measurements of physical observables that were unbelievable when Karl Jansky collected the first radio data from the Galaxy, in the 1930s. On the other hand, multibeam receivers and large area facilities are already changing the present paradigm of data acquisition rate and expected sensitivity, with impact not only in the astrophysical science (more data, more sources, deeper in redshift, in less observing time) but also in the efficiency of operation. SKA, LOFAR, ALMA, EVLA and HAUCA, among others, represent the state-of-art technology to face the pioneering scientific challenges of this new century.

The 4th INPE Advanced School in Astrophysics is an excellent opportunity for PhD students, pos-docs and reserchers from other areas to enter the Radioastronomy world, getting acquainted with its techniques, state-of-the-art instrumentation, operating facilities and the wonderful science that can be accessed through it.
All the abovementioned topics will be addressed at INPE's IV Advanced School on Astrophysics by a team of expert lecturers:

Prof. Richard A. Perley graduated from the University of Maryland in 1977. He held a post-doctoral position at the VLA from 1977 through 1980, when he was appointed to the VLA's permanent staff. His research work through the mid 1990s was focussed primarily on radio galaxies and quasars, utilizing the VLA's extraordinary new capabilities for detecting and resolving these distant objects. In the mid 1990s, he was appointed the Expanded Very Large Array Project Scientist, and has since devoted most of his time to the development and testing of the greatly expanded capabilities of this facility.

Prof. James Cordes research interests include radio astronomy, neutron stars, pulsars, the interstellar medium, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, signal processing techniques, statistical inference, and topics in computer science. He regularly makes observations using radio telescopes in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, the Very Large Array in New Mexico, the Parkes telescope in Australia, and the Very Long Baseline Array, headquartered in New Mexico. Cordes also makes infrared and optical observations using the Hale Telescope at Palomar and has taken part in joint radio and gamma-ray observations using the Compton Gamma-ray Observatory and X-ray Timing Explorer. He also uses the Hubble Space T elescope and the Chandra X-ray Satellite in his multiwavelength work. He is currently planning observations using the upgraded Arecibo Observatory and a new multiple-feed receiver system that involve deep searches for radio pulsars. He is also heavily involved in the Square Kilometer Array project, a next-generation radio telescope.

Prof. Paolo de Bernardis teaches Astrophysics and Observational Cosmology at the University Rome La Sapienza. He devoted his research activity, since 1982, to measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropy and polarization. He has developed several balloon experiments including the very successful BOOMERanG, which detected for the first time oscillations of the primeval plasma. . His expertise is in instrument development, including detector technologies (bolometers and KIDs), polarization modulators, mm-wave telescopes, calibrators, cryogenic systems. He is one of the Co-Investigators of the High Frequency Instrument on the Planck CMB mission. He has been awarded the Feltrinelli Prize (2001), the Balzan Prize (2006), the Dan David Prize (2009) and the Cocconi Prize (2011).

Prof. George Hobbs works as research scientist at CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science in Sydney, Australia. George's expertise is in studying radio observations of pulsars and has produced the standard software used Worldwide for analysing pulsar timing observations. He currently has a leading role in the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array project which has the main goal of making the first direct detection of gravitational waves. The project also has numerous secondary goals including searching for irregularities in terrestrial time standards, improving the Solar System ephemeris, studying the pulsar properties, probing the interstellar medium and using the pulsars as deep-space navigational aids.
 
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