APRIM 2020 Cancellation due to COVID-19

Message from Dr George Heald and Dr Barbara Catinella, APRIM 2020 Co-Chairs

On behalf of the SOC and LOC, we regret to announce cancellation of the 14th Asia-Pacific Regional IAU Meeting (APRIM 2020), which was due to take place on July 6-10 this year at the Perth Convention Centre in Western Australia.

We were looking forward to welcoming the Asia-Pacific astronomy community to Perth this year, but given the rapidly evolving global situation with COVID-19 we have recognised that it is necessary to cancel the conference entirely.

With ongoing travel bans and social gathering restrictions affecting large sections of the world, APRIM 2020 would not have been within reach of all members of the astronomical community. Alternative dates and structures for the conference have been fully considered, but in light of the circumstances it is not viable to create an inclusive and accessible conference that fits into the yearly astronomical calendar. All IAU meetings are developed with a central ethos of inclusivity and accessibility, and we feel cancelling APRIM is a better outcome than not being able to meet these essential requirements.

We acknowledge that our decision to cancel APRIM is disappointing, and we thank you for your support and understanding. We would like to thank the entire scientific and local organising committees for their hard work to prepare for APRIM thus far, and to acknowledge the significant commitment by speakers, sponsors, exhibitors and others. Thank you to all those who have already registered and submitted abstracts, and a particular thank you to our co-host organisations CSIRO and ICRAR. We would also like to thank the IAU and the Astronomical Society of Australia for their support of APRIM 2020.

Information about the future of APRIM and the next scheduled meeting in 2023 will be shared as it becomes available.

We wish you and your families health in these unprecedented times.

Added by Beth Cloake on 2020-04-03