To the
 
 President of IAU Division IV Stars
 Dainis Dravins
 Lund Observatory
 Lund University
 Box 43, SE - 221 00 Lund
 Sweden
 E-mail: dainis@astro.lu.se
 
 and the
 
 Assistant General Secretary
 Karel A. van der Hucht
 SRON, Ntl Inst for Space Research
 Sorbonnelaan 2
 NL - 3584 CA Utrecht
 the Netherlands
 Email: K.A.van.der.Hucht@sron.nl
 
 Concerns: Letter of Intent for proposing an IAU Symposium to be
 	  held at the IAU GA in Prague in 2006
 
 Dear Dainis Dravins and Karel van der Hucht,
 
 we are writing to you as President of IAU Division IV - Stars -
 and as IAU Assistant General Secretary, respectively, about our
 intention to submit a proposal for an IAU Symposium to be held
 at the next General Assembly of the IAU in Prague in 2006.
 
 The proposed title of the meeting is:
 
 "Convection in Astrophysics".
 
 This may be slightly modified before submission of the
 actual proposal.
 
 Convection is widespread throughout the Universe. This conference
 will deal with theoretical and observational aspects of convection in a wide
 variety of objects from our own Solar system to our Galaxy and beyond,
 through the following preliminiary list of topics (ordered as sessions which
 are grouped according to physical processes):
 
 A - Modelling and simulation techniques of convection (general introduction,
     history, current models, simulations, critical discussion, advanced
     techniques);
 
 B - Observing convection (history; sun, planets, stars; in situ or from
     ground/space through spectra and photometry);
 
 C - Dry convection & boundary layers - differences to free convection
     (objects for discussion include Venus, Mars, Titan, differences to
     atmospheric convection in gas giants);
 
 D - Convection & radiation (RHD, sun, stellar convection, planets);
 
 E - Cloud convection and reacting convection (Venus, gas giants, brown
     dwarfs; also supernovae, and AGB / post-AGB phases); this listing is
     quite spread and may require splitting as the physics is rather diverse,
     for instance, C and E together may become 3 slightly shorter sessions;
 
 F - Convective mixing (overshooting, supernovae, stellar evolution);
 
 G - Semiconvection / diffusive convection, metallic / salt fingers
     (which occur in stars, planets, interacting binaries); sessions F and
     G may be unified into one single session in the draft proposal;
 
 H - Convection & pulsation (helio- & asteroseismology, Cepheids, white
     dwarfs, solar-like stars - results from [then] recent space missions);
 
 I - Convection & rotation (meridional flow and deep convection in stars
     and gas giants; storms in planetary atmospheres);
 
 J - MHD convection (MHD convection at the solar / stellar surface,
     the solar dynamo, the tachocline, convection in magnetic stars).
 
 Further topics (e.g. convection in neutron stars) may be added while
 others may be removed: changes to the topics of some of these sessions
 and other regroupings are expected before the programme is finalised.
 
 A core SOC is proposed and currently consists, in alphabetical
 order, of
 
 Kwing Lam Chan  (HKUST, Hongkong, China)
 Francesca D'Antona  (Monte Porzio Obs., Italy)
 Tom Duvall  (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA)
 Andrew Ingersoll  (Geol. & Planetary Sci., Caltech, Pasadena, CA, USA)
 Jiri Kubat  (Astron. Inst., ASCR, Ondrejov, Czech Republic)
 Friedrich Kupka  (MPI for Astrophysics, Garching, Germany)
 Aake Nordlund  (Univ. of Copenhagen, Denmark)
 Ian Roxburgh  (Queen Mary, Univ. of London, London, UK)
 Barry Smalley  (Keele University, Staffordshire, UK)
 Sami Solanki  (MPS, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany)
 Juri Toomre  (JILA, Boulder, CO, USA)
 Sylvie Vauclair  (Observatoire Midi-Pyrenees, Toulouse, France)
 
 The current co-chairs are Friedrich Kupka and Ian Roxburgh from
 the proposed SOC.
 
 The proposed SOC will be completed with two or three additional colleagues
 to ensure a broad coverage of the scientific areas of interest.
 
 We propose that the symposium be one of the conferences held during the
 IAU general assembly in Prague in 2006. We prefer to hold the meeting
 during the first half of the assembly, although we are aware that
 adjustments may have to be made to avoid undesired overlaps with some
 of the other symposia suggested for the same period, which some
 participants also wish to attend.
 
 We apply for symposium status for the meeting, because the range of
 topics addresses several fields in astrophysics which are assigned
 to a number of IAU Divisions as mentioned below.
 
 As the topic of the meeting is of direct relevance to most branches of
 stellar astrophysics and because the Presidents and/or Vice-Presidents of
 IAU Commissions 35 and 36 (tbc) have expressed their support and
 intention to act as proposing commissions, we propose that IAU Division
 IV be the coordinating division.
 
 We would expect support from other IAU Divisions, namely II, III, V, VII,
 and perhaps VI through several of their Commissions which we intend to
 approach to act either as additional proposing commissions or as
 supporting ones.
 
 Yours sincerly,
 		    Friedrich Kupka
 
 on behalf of the proposed SOC
 
 Kwing Lam Chan
 Francesca D'Antona
 Tom Duvall
 Andrew Ingersoll
 Jiri Kubat
 Friedrich Kupka
 Aake Nordlund
 Ian Roxburgh
 Barry Smalley
 Sami Solanki
 Juri Toomre
 Sylvie Vauclair
 
 ---------------
 
 Contact Address:
 
 *********************************************************************
 Dr. Friedrich Kupka			 tel:	 +49-(0)89-30000-2282
 Research Associate			 fax:	 +49-(0)89-30000-2235
 Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics  e-mail: fk@mpa-garching.mpg.de
 Karl-Schwarzschild Str. 1	  http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/~fk/
 85741 Garching
 Germany
 *********************************************************************