AGORA News

Dear AGORA Colleagues,

We are delighted to announce that the 11th Workshop of the AGORA Project will be held at UC Santa Cruz, Aug. 11-12, at the heels of the annual Santa Cruz Galaxy Workshop 2023.  

[1] OVERVIEW:

This year’s AGORA Workshop will be Aug. 11-12 right after the Santa Cruz Galaxy Workshop, Aug. 7-11.  On Friday 11, the AGORA Workshop and the Galaxy Workshop will hold joint sessions on high-resolution galaxy simulations.  On Saturday 12, we will have working sessions for ongoing AGORA Papers, and a brainstorming session on Collaboration-wide topics.  Registered remote participants will receive Zoom links for the Saturday morning discussion (starting at 09:30 PDT).  

In-person participation is encouraged for the Collaboration members who have been actively engaged in the ongoing projects and those who are willing to contribute more in the future.  We also ask a student/postdoc to contact us who is interested in helping the future AGORA analysis!  If you cannot make it in person, you are most welcomed to join us on Saturday 12 via remote connection (registration required to receive a Zoom link).

- Registration:  https://forms.gle/21cJHoKtTsi7g7sE8 

- Tentative program, logistics, etc:  http://www.agorasimulations.org/workshops  (note: different from Santa Cruz Galaxy Workshop)  

- Latest Collaboration progress report + links to online meeting notes:  https://sites.google.com/site/projectagoraworkspace/collaborative-documents/progress-report-25  (membership required)

[2] REGISTRATION & PAYMENT:

Please fill out the registration by June 20 if you wish to attend this year's Workshop — in-person or online.  Please do so even if you've already been invited and registered to the Santa Cruz Galaxy Workshop (http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/GalaxyWorkshop2023.html), so we can have an accurate head count for planning.  (FYI, if you wish to join the Galaxy Workshop in-person, too, during the main week Aug. 7-11 and/or the preceding and following week Jul. 31-Aug. 4 and 14-18, please talk to Avishai Dekel now at avishai.dekel@mail.huji.ac.il and register separately.)  There will be a nominal registration fee to be collected on site in order to cover the breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Saturday 12.  

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Please forward this message to anyone potentially interested, especially to young simulators who hope to participate in the AGORA science comparisons.  If you’d like to newly participate in any of the ongoing efforts in the progress report above or have any question, please contact the Project Coordinator, Ji-hoon Kim (santacruzgalaxy@gmail.com).  We look forward to seeing you in-person or online in August!  

Sincerely,

Joel and Ji-hoon on behalf of the Local Organizing Committee and the AGORA Steering Committee

Dear AGORA Colleagues,

Huge thanks to all those who contributed to this year’s AGORA Workshop (especially to Joel who kindly hosted the Workshop once again after 2-year hiatus)!  

  □  The discussion agenda/notes can be found in the link below.  The relevant part of the meeting notes have been transferred to the two Google Docs, one for Paper “CosmoRun”+“CGM”+“Satellites”, and the other for all other Papers.  Those links can be found in this link, too.  

https://sites.google.com/site/projectagoraworkspace/collaborative-documents/progress-report-24  (membership required)

  □  While we push multiple sub-projects to the finish line, more sub-projects are being formed that will utilize existing and upcoming AGORA simulations.  Please visit the discussion notes above for more information.  If you wish to join any of these efforts,  please send an email to the Project Coordinator (santacruzgalaxy@gmail.com) so we can include you in future communications, and in the relevant Slack channel, etc.  Separate emails will be sent out by Santi/Clayton/Ji-hoon to schedule telecons for ongoing sub-projects.

• Draft being written: 

- Paper “CosmoRun2”  (led by Roca-Fabrega)

- Paper “CGM”  (led by Strawn)

- Paper “Satellites”  (led by Jung, Kim & Kim)

• Being designed or proposed:

- Paper “CosmoTechnical”  (led by Revaz) 

- Paper “AGN-Isolated”  (led by Oh)

- Papers “HighresRun” and “Clumps”  (led by Ceverino & Lupi)

- Paper “Bars/Spirals”  (proposed by Roca-Fabrega)

- Paper “Powderday-Mocks”  (proposed by Narayanan)

- Paper “Mergers”  (proposed by Barrow)

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If any question, please do not hesitate to contact us.  Thank you very much once again for your continuing support for AGORA!  

Sincerely,

Joel, Santi and Ji-hoon on behalf of the Local Organizing Committee and the AGORA Steering Committee

Dear AGORA Colleagues,

As many of you know, a group of us including Santi, Joel, and Ji-hoon with help from Chris Hayward (Flatiron) have worked to post the AGORA simulation snapshots from our Papers II and III on FlatHUB.  Here is the link:  

- AGORA data on FlatHUB:  https://flathub.flatironinstitute.org/agora 

- AGORA Paper II:  ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016ApJ...833..202K  

- AGORA Paper III:  ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2021ApJ...917...64R

The “TOOLS+DATA” page of the AGORA public webpage has been modified accordingly to include the links to FlatHUB.  Please let us know if you have any comment/feedback.  

http://www.agorasimulations.org/data  

We expect FlatHUB to be the platform where we publicly release the data introduced in AGORA publications.  This includes the upcoming release of the “CosmoRun" snapshots down to z=2 saved at finer time-steps, expected when our Papers “CosmoRun2” and/or “CGM” are published.  

We thank the logistical support by the Flatiron Institute including Chris Hayward and Rachel Somerville!  Thanks also to all other AGORA members whose contributions have kept the Collaboration's spirit healthy and strong.  

With best wishes,

Santi, Joel and Ji-hoon

Dear AGORA Colleagues,

We are delighted to announce that the 10th Workshop of the AGORA Project will be held at UC Santa Cruz, Aug. 19-20, at the heels of the annual Santa Cruz Galaxy Workshop 2022.  

[1] OVERVIEW:

This year’s AGORA Workshop will be Aug. 19-20 right after the Santa Cruz Galaxy Workshop, Aug. 15-19.  On Friday 19, the AGORA Workshop and the Galaxy Workshop will hold joint sessions on high-resolution galaxy simulations.  On Saturday 20, we will have working sessions for ongoing AGORA Papers, and a brainstorming session on Collaboration-wide topics.  Registered remote participants will receive Zoom links for the Saturday morning discussion (starting at 09:30 PDT).  

In-person participation is encouraged for the Collaboration members who have been actively engaged in the ongoing projects and have been contacted by the Workshop organizers.  We also ask a student/postdoc to contact us who is interested in helping the future AGORA analysis!  Due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, we may not be able to host too many on-site participants; however, if you cannot make it, participants are definitely welcomed to join us on Saturday 20 via remote connection.

- Registration:  https://forms.gle/MEzPhNJacKVciUpe9 

- Tentative program, logistics, etc:  http://www.agorasimulations.org/workshops  (note: different from Santa Cruz Galaxy Workshop)  

- Latest Collaboration progress report + links to online meeting notes:  https://sites.google.com/site/projectagoraworkspace/collaborative-documents/progress-report-23  (membership required)

[2] REGISTRATION & PAYMENT:

Please fill out the registration by June 10 if you wish to attend this year's Workshop — in-person or online.  Please do so even if you've already been invited and registered to the Santa Cruz Galaxy Workshop (http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/GalaxyWorkshop2022.html), so we can have an accurate head count for planning.  (FYI, if you wish to join the Galaxy Workshop in-person, too, during the main week Aug. 15-19 and/or the preceding and following week Aug. 8-12 and 22-26, please talk to Avishai Dekel now at avishai.dekel@mail.huji.ac.il and register separately.)  There will be a nominal registration fee to cover the breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Saturday 20.  You will pay this fee when you register for the Santa Cruz Galaxy Workshop.  

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Please forward this message to anyone potentially interested, especially to young simulators who hope to participate in the AGORA science comparisons.  If you’d like to newly participate in any of the ongoing efforts in the progress report above or have any question, please contact the Project Coordinator, Ji-hoon Kim (santacruzgalaxy@gmail.com).  We look forward to seeing you in-person or online in August!  

Sincerely,

Joel and Ji-hoon on behalf of the Local Organizing Committee and the AGORA Steering Committee

Dear AGORA Colleagues,

Thank you very much to all those who made this year’s AGORA Workshop vibrant and extremely productive!  The discussion notes during the 2-day Workshop can be found below.  

https://sites.google.com/site/projectagoraworkspace/collaborative-documents/progress-report-22  (membership required)

   □ In particular, we have formed multiple new sub-projects for which we will utilize existing and upcoming AGORA simulations, and will carry out explorative studies.  If you wish to join these efforts, please visit the discussion notes in the above link and add your name (check pink-colored sentences).  A separate email will soon be sent by Clayton/Santi/Ji-hoon to those in each of these efforts to schedule the monthly telecon, etc.

• Proposed or relaunched:

- Paper “SFR-PSD”  (proposed by Tacchella) 

- Paper “Chaos”  (proposed by Oh) 

- Paper “IGM-Tomography”  (proposed by Nagamine)

- Paper “AGN-Isolated”  (proposed by Strawn & Nagamine)

- Paper “Morphology”  (proposed by Primack)

- Paper “DM-Highres”  (proposed for relaunch by Primack)

• Ongoing:

- Paper “CGM”  (led by Strawn & Roca-Fabrega; https://sites.google.com/site/projectagoraworkspace/collaborative-documents/paper-cgm)

- Paper “CosmoTechnical”  (led by Revaz) 

- Papers “HighresRun” and “Clumps”  (led by Ceverino & Lupi; https://sites.google.com/site/projectagoraworkspace/collaborative-documents/paper-clumps)

   □ Lastly, all AGORA Collaboration members are invited to send us your recorded video talk anytime, if you want to advertise your work through the AGORA webpage (http://www.agorasimulations.org/workshops).

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If any question, please do not hesitate to contact us.  Thank you very much for all your contributions in AGORA!  

Sincerely,

Joel, Santi and Ji-hoon on behalf of the Local Organizing Committee and the AGORA Steering Committee

Dear AGORA Colleagues,

We are delighted to announce that the 9th annual Workshop of the AGORA Project will be held online on Aug. 12-13, 2021.  As noted earlier, this year’s Workshop has two parts:  [A] recorded video talks + [B] live discussion sessions on ongoing/future projects.  

• Workshop program + registration   

[1] Recorded Video Talks

   □ Despite the months of hardship during the pandemic, many resilient researchers have kept doing amazing work.  However, without many conferences to travel to for 2 years in a row, researchers — junior postdocs and students in particular — had harder time promoting their work than in typical years.  Simulators didn't have a lot of places to showcase their beautiful movies and images, either.

   □ In the past years, the AGORA Workshop has held joint sessions with the Santa Cruz Galaxy Workshop on numerical simulations.  Following the tradition, we are soliciting contributed, recorded 15 to 20-min talks on numerical simulations of galaxies and Universe.  While the Santa Cruz Galaxy Workshop is on its hiatus, we hope the AGORA Workshop would be the place where simulators can present their work and share their ideas with a broader numerical cosmology/galaxy formation community.  (You should feel free to post your talk even if you do not wish to be involved in the ongoing AGORA efforts!)  

• Think of the usual simulation talks you have seen in the Santa Cruz Galaxy Workshop (2019 Workshop).  

• Create a < 20-min YouTube clip using the softwares like Zoom, Powerpoint, Keynote, or OBS (example by Roca-Fabrega).  Simply email the link to the Project Coordinator.    

   □ We will then curate your contributions on the Workshop webpage, and expose them publicly for months starting August 9.  The launching of our "talk collection" will be widely announced to the AGORA mailing list, and to the usual Santa Cruz Galaxy Workshop participants.  With a fraction of the time and risk you may take in a physical trip, you will be able to present your latest work to the very focused audience with deep interests in the topic.  

[2] Live Discussion Sessions

   □ On Aug. 12-13, we are planning a 2-day live discussion on the ongoing and future projects in the Collaboration.  To accommodate our participants from virtually all corners of the globe, we plan a 2-hour session each day on Zoom (07:00-09:00 PDT, 10:00-12:00 EDT, 16:00-18:00 CEST, 23:00-01:00 JST/KST).

• On Day 1 (12 Thu), we will have a Collaboration-wide brainstorming session with both existing and new members on the future of the Project, to best utilize the science comparison opportunities that just opened up with our Paper III (arxiv.org/abs/2106.09738).  We will also decide on the projects (and their leaderships) we can newly launch, or relaunch. This will be a great chance for new participants in particular — you are welcome to submit a short elevator pitch as a video clip, or talk to the Project Coordinator.  

• On Day 2 (13 Fri), we will have more technical discussions primarily with the existing members already deep in the Project, on e.g., Papers “CGM”, “Technical” and “Clumps”.  The latest Collaboration progress report on the ongoing Papers is at: sites.google.com/site/projectagoraworkspace/collaborative-documents/progress-report-21 (membership required).  

[3] Registration

   □ Please fill out the registration by July 23 if you wish to participate in either or both portions of the Workshop.  There is no registration fee.  If you plan to post your video talk, please do register first, and submit the link by August 6.  

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Please forward this message to anyone potentially interested, especially to the young simulators who are looking for opportunities to advertise their amazing work, or to participate in the science comparison in AGORA.   If any question, please do not hesitate to contact the Project Coordinator.  We look forward to seeing you online at the Workshop!  

Sincerely,

Joel and Ji-hoon on behalf of the Local Organizing Committee and the AGORA Steering Committee

Dear Colleagues,

Thank you very much as always for your interest and participation in AGORA.  We have a few exciting announcements to make.

[1]  Paper III “CosmoRun” + Santi’s Talks + Public Data Release

   □ The 3rd Paper from the AGORA Collaboration introducing the suite of high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulations of a Milky Way-mass halo on “seven" different code platforms (ART-I, ENZO, RAMSES, CHANGA, GADGET-3, GEAR and GIZMO) is now accepted by the ApJ and is on today's arXiv.  We thank everybody who contributed to this ambitious endeavor over the years, including Santi Roca-Fabrega and the code leaders (Ji-hoon Kim, Loic Hausammann, Ken Nagamine, Alessandro Lupi, Johnny Powell and Ikkoh Shimizu).  

- https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.09738  

- http://www.agorasimulations.org/about  (Santi’s short video introducing the results can be found in the "Announcements" section)

   □ Santi will hold two live public talks on Zoom on June 28 (Mon) to introduce Paper III and discuss the Collaboration’s immediate future plans.  

- 1st talk for Europeans/Asians/Oceanians: 
 IPARCOS seminar@Universidad Complutense de Madrid  /  June 28, 10:00 CEST, 17:00 JST/KST  

- 2nd talk for Americans/Europeans: 
 CGI seminar@University of California at Santa Cruz  /  June 28, 13:00 PDT, 16:00 EDT, 22:00 CEST 

- Zoom links for both talks will be sent to the AGORA mailing list next week.  Both institutions have kindly agreed to circulating the Zoom links to a larger astrophysics community.  The video of his talk will also be posted on the AGORA Project website.  

   □ We plan to release some of the simulation snapshots used in Paper III publicly once we set up a user-friendly interface on a reliable host.  The system could be accessed through the AGORA Project website, and the announcement will be made in the AGORA mailing list when ready.  Early access to the data can be provided upon request to Santi (sroca01@ucm.es) or to the Project Coordinator (santacruzgalaxy@gmail.com, Ji-hoon).  

[2]  AGORA Workshop 2021 + New Project Website 

   □ We plan to hold the 9th annual AGORA Workshop online on August 12-13, 2021 (Thu-Fri, tentative dates).  We will have not only the technical discussions for the existing members, but also the Collaboration-wide discussions with existing and new members on the future of the Project to best harness the power of multi-platform approach in numerical galaxy formation.  We are also considering to solicit contributed, recorded < 20-min talks on numerical galaxy simulations, and curate them on the Workshop webpage.  More information on the tentative program, registration, etc will be sent to the AGORA mailing list in a few weeks.  So, please stay tuned!  (If not already, please talk to the Project Coordinator to be on the mailing list; or bookmark the AGORA Project website.)  

   □ This year’s Workshop will be a great chance for new participants in particular — especially if they want to take the opportunities for science comparisons that just opened up.  You are already welcomed to contribute to any ongoing projects in AGORA (sites.google.com/site/projectagoraworkspace/collaborative-documents/progress-report-21; membership required to view), including those that are natural extensions of Paper III.  New code groups are encouraged to follow the calibration steps presented in Paper III — the calibration results of the newly participating codes are to be in the follow-up Papers as an appendix.  

   □ As a final note, the Project’s websites — both the public front (www.agorasimulations.org) and its workspace (sites.google.com/site/projectagoraworkspace) — have just been completely renovated.  You are welcomed to explore them, and let the Project Coordinator know if you find any missing information, or links that do not work.  Notable pages include:  Publicly available AGORA Tools and Data (www.agorasimulations.org/data), Workspace landing page that collects Key Softwares and FAQs (sites.google.com/site/projectagoraworkspace/home).   

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Please feel free to forward this message to anyone potentially interested.  Please let us know if you have any questions/comments/suggestions.  Great thanks once again for your continued interest in AGORA!  

Sincerely,

Joel, Santi and Ji-hoon on behalf of the AGORA “CosmoRun” Group and the AGORA Steering Committee

Dear AGORA Colleagues,

First of all, we hope everyone is doing well in this time of uncertainty.  As many of you know from our regular telecons for Paper “CosmoRun”, we have come to an agreement that we will hold our next AGORA Workshop when the draft of Paper “CosmoRun” is ready and when the scopes and strategies of the next Papers can be discussed.  The workshop's format will very likely be online, and it will be announced on this mailing list in a timely fashion.  

 □  For the ongoing efforts towards Paper “CosmoRun” spearheaded by Santi Roca-Fabrega and many of our tireless code leaders, see its Workspace:  https://sites.google.com/site/projectagoraworkspace/collaborative-documents/paper-cgm.  The group leading this effort has had 24 meetings/telecons in the past ~3 years!  If you haven’t, you may talk to Santi or Ji-hoon for the recent analysis results, how to contribute to this effort, etc.  Any code representative who is not participating in the current "CosmoRun” comparison is especially welcomed!  

 □  For the Papers in the next stage — Papers “CGM”, “HighresRun”, “Clumps”, and more — see their relevant Workspaces and/or https://sites.google.com/site/projectagoraworkspace/collaborative-documents/progress-report-19.  You may talk to Ji-hoon with any question or suggestion.  

We wish you and your family all the strength in this strange and uncertain times.  Thank you very much as always for your continued interest and participation in AGORA!  

Sincerely,

Joel, Santi, and Ji-hoon on behalf of the AGORA Steering Committee

Dear All,  

I've been asked to share with you an unexpected by product of our AGORA disk simulation.  

Maybe some of you have recognized its short apparition in the video presenting the SDSS/eBOSS data release published yesterday:  https://youtu.be/KJJXbcf8kxA 

Note that a 3D-360-VR (google cardboard) version of this film exists:  https://youtu.be/GTHvXiAFgVk 

Finally, here are two face on view of the evolving AGORA disk alone: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpfhe6lx75o 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlWv3dlbKNQ 

(downloadable files also available at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ywxnKPV4GNYvK0VCmzDu9XcwCaB5ga5z?usp=sharing)

Best, 

Yves Revaz

Dear AGORA Colleagues,

How are you, and happy new year to you all!  As many of you know, a group of people including Santi, Ji-hoon, and Joel have been preparing the public release of the isolated disk simulation snapshots from our Paper II (ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016ApJ...833..202K/abstract).  A “Quick Links” page was built on the Project’s public webpage, which includes the simulation snapshots (on Google Drive) and many other useful resources provided by AGORA — e.g., common analysis scripts in yt used to obtain the diagnostics in Paper II, isolated and cosmological ICs, links to the key softwares, etc.:  [click Tools+Data tab]

The following short release note has also been prepared to be posted on the arXiv on Jan. 14 (expected; but not to be submitted to any peer-reviewed journal).  If you have any last-minute comment, please feel free to let us know by no later than Jan. 8.: https://physics.snu.ac.kr/cosmo/agora/AGORA_release.pdf,   https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.04354 

Please let us know if you have any comment/feedback.  Thank you very much for your attention, and for all your contribution to keeping the spirit of AGORA! 

With best wishes,

Santi, Ji-hoon, and Joel on behalf of those who prepared the public release of the AGORA isolated disk simulation data

Dear AGORA Colleagues,

Great thanks to all those who contributed to another very interesting Workshop this year!  It was indeed full of fun and very productive.     

 □  A summary of the discussions during the Workshop can be found below.  As you may notice, we made various strategic changes to deliver best science in the coming months.  Important items that require your attention are in red color:   

- Workshop Discussion Agenda:  

https://sites.google.com/site/projectagoraworkspace/collaborative-documents/progress-report-18

- Paper “CosmoRun” + Paper “CGM” :  

https://sites.google.com/site/projectagoraworkspace/collaborative-documents/paper-cgm

- Paper “HighresRun” + Paper “Clumps” :  

https://sites.google.com/site/projectagoraworkspace/collaborative-documents/paper-clumps

 □  ACTION ITEMS for Paper “CosmoRun” and Paper “CGM” participants:  Participants of the Paper “CosmoRun” and Paper “CGM” are particularly encouraged to take a careful look at the docs above.  A separate email will be sent by Santi to those running the simulations to schedule the next monthly telecon, among others.  

 □  ACTION ITEMS for Paper “Disk” code leaders:  A separate email will be sent by Ji-hoon to code leaders of our published, isolated disk comparison paper (a.k.a. Paper II or Paper "Disk") to discuss the public release of the simulation data.  

Thank you all very much for your continuing interest in AGORA!  

Sincerely,

Joel, Ji-hoon, and Santi on behalf of the AGORA Steering Committee

Dear AGORA Colleagues,

As we announced earlier this year, we are again happy to have the 8th Workshop of the AGORA Project at UC Santa Cruz, Aug. 9-10, 2019.  We apologize for the late email about registration and payment, as we have been coordinating with the Santa Cruz Galaxy Workshop.  

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OVERVIEW:

This year’s AGORA Workshop will be Aug. 9-10 right after the Santa Cruz Galaxy Workshop, Aug. 5-9.  On Friday 9, the AGORA Workshop and the Galaxy Workshop will hold joint sessions on high-resolution galaxy simulations.  On Saturday 10, we will have working sessions for Papers “CGM” and “Clumps", and a brainstorming session on Collaboration-wide topics.  Many of the Paper Group leaders and code leaders will join us in person and online during the Workshop!  

- More information about the 8th AGORA Workshop:  www.agorasimulations.org/workshops/8th-workshop 

- Latest progress report on planned Papers (being updated; log-in required):  sites.google.com/site/projectagoraworkspace/collaborative-documents/progress-report-17 

- More information about the Santa Cruz Galaxy Workshop:  hipacc.ucsc.edu/GalaxyWorkshop2019.html

If you wish to participate in the ongoing efforts of Papers “CGM” and/or “Clumps”, but haven’t heard about the recent telecons and updates, please contact the Project Coordinator, Ji-hoon Kim (santacruzgalaxy@gmail.com).  

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REGISTRATION & PAYMENT:

Please fill out the registration ASAP no later than July 21 if you wish to attend this year's Workshop — in person or online.  Please do so even if you have already signed up for the separate Santa Cruz Galaxy Workshop, so we can have an accurate head count for planning.  If you’d like to participate online, please do fill out the form so we can send you a Hangout invite.  There is a $50 registration fee to cover the meals and logistics on Saturday 10.  

- Registration:  www.agorasimulations.org/reg  (note: different from the Galaxy Workshop questionnaire)

- Payment:  event.bookitbee.com/22953/2019-santa-cruz-agora-workshop  (note: different from the Galaxy Workshop payment) 

Please forward this message to anyone potentially interested.  Thank you very much!  

Sincerely,

Joel Primack and Ji-hoon Kim on behalf of the Local Organizing Committee and the AGORA Steering Committee

   □ AGORA news 2017-2020:  [archived] 

   □ AGORA news 2015-2017:  [archived] 

   □ AGORA news 2014-2015:  [archived] 

   □ AGORA news 2013:  [archived] 

   □ AGORA news 2012:  [archived]