2024 News Items
04 December 2024 - CERN Pension Fund Meeting
The viewgraphs of the CERN Pension Fund Annual Information Meeting on 20 November 2024 (see previous News item d.d. 22 October 2024) are now available on the Documents and Presentations page, which also includes a link to the meeting recordings (restricted access).
08 November 2024: Invitation to the ESO Garching Year-End-Party 2024
From Nathalie Kasteleyn - Human Resources.
On behalf of ESO you are delighted to invite you to register for this year’s Garching Year-End party, which will take place on Saturday 7 December 2024 from 19:00 at the Hilton Munich Airport hotel. You may also be accompanied by a guest (please note that any guests must be at least 18 years old).
Dress code: formal attire is appreciated.
To register please use this sign-up page. Further details can be found in the email sent out by Nathalie on 7 November. If you have any questions about the party, please send an email to year-end-party[at]eso.org.
08 November 2024 – CERN Pension Fund Annual Information Meeting will be on 20 November 2024
As announced recently, the CERN Pension Fund Annual Information Meeting at ESO will be held on 20 November at 15:00 CET / 11:00 CLST. The meeting will take place in the HQ Telescopium Auditorium with video links to Vitacura, Paranal, and La Silla
Enikő Patkós, the Social Security Policy Manager, will introduce the meeting, after which the Chair of the Pension Fund Governing Board, Florin-Dorian Buzatu, and the Pension Fund CEO, Doug Heron, will provide an update of the Fund. They will be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Two members of the CERN Pension Fund Benefits Service, Emilie Clerc and Pilar Herguedas Muñoz will be available as well to answer your questions. Staff members, fellows and retirees in Garching who would like to discuss any individual cases are invited to arrange a one-to-one meeting with Emilie or Pilar by contacting Nathalie Kastelyn in Human Resources for an appointment. Appointments (15-minutes slots) are available between 9:30 and 12:30.
To follow this meeting on-line please find the link on the Documents and Presentation page (restricted access).
02 November 2024: Subscription to latest news from ESO
The Head of the ESO Department of Communication pointed us to the "latest news from ESO" that is publicly available and to which also pensioners can subscribe individually. If you're interested in this, please submit your e-mail address via the URL https://www.eso.org/public/outreach/newsletters/#2. Note that you can obtain this newsletter in the language of any of ESO's member states. This public newsletter is distributed roughly once per month.
22 October 2024 – CERN Pension Fund Annual Information Meeting will be on 20 November 2024
Please be informed that the CERN Pension Fund Annual Information Meeting at ESO will be held on 20 November at 15:00 CET. The link to follow this meeting on-line will be published as soon as it becomes available.
1 October 2024 - Astronomy for Non-Astronomers recordings are now available
The "Astronomy for Non-Astronomers" talks series, organised by the Office for Science Garching, is primarely aimed at non-astronomers within ESO, although astronomers are of course welcome to attend, especially as speakers. The talks are typically held on Thursdays at 12:00 in the Eridanus Auditorium in Garching, with the option to join remotely. It is a pleasure to announce that the recordings of these talks are made available by the Office for Science (OfS) to registered ESO pensioners.
For registered ESO Pensioners: To give you access your email address has been forwarded to the OfS and you should have received an invitation to view the Sharepoint Folder with the abstracts of the talks and the links to the recordings. No further action from your side is needed. In case you don't want to access the AfNA talks recordings please send an email to Rein Warmels. In that case your email address will be removed from the AfNA email list.
For "new" ESO Pensioners: In the Pensioners' Mailing List Registration form you have to tick the box "I want access to the AfN talks recordings". After the registration you will receive an email from the OfS with an invitation to the Sharepoint Folder with the abstracts of the talks and the links to the recordings.
1 October 2024 - Announcement of the next GA of the ISA on 24th October 2024
From the President of the International Staff Committee
Please note that the next General Assembly of the International Staff Association will take place on the 24th October at 10am Chile and 3pm Germany. The GA will be held in Urania in Chile, Telescopium in Garching and also online (The Teams link are available on the Documents and Presentation page).
Here is the draft agenda for the GA:
- Proposed draft updates to ISA statutes and circulars
- CERN pension fund updates
- CIGNA health care updates
- STAC topics in 2024
- Internal Justice review survey results
- LPO commuting memo
- ISA finances
- Social activities
Regards,
Joe Anderson, president of the International Staff Committee,
On behalf of the ISCC: Gianni Marconi, Florian Rodler, Robert de Rosa
and the ISCE: Paolo La Penna, Elsa Calmette, Henri Bonnet, Matthias Seidel
16 September 2024 – Astronomy for Non-Astronomers
From the responses to our questionnnaire in March it was clear that there is a broad interest in having access to the recordings of the Astronomy for Non-Astronomers talks (AfNA) that are given in Garching regularly. Consequently, we have approached the Office for Science (Garching) if it would be possible to make the recordings of the talks also available to the ESO pensioners. The answer was positive and steps were taken to make this happen. For various reasons this small project suffered some delay. However, the good news is that the list of recordings is now available and the process for accessing these recordings is put in place.
In the coming days you will receive an email with the link to a (shared) document that will given the list of talks, the abstracts, as well as the link to the each of the recordings.
Please note that the recording are intended for ESO Internal Use only. In case of problems accessing the recordings, please send an email to Rein Warmels.
16 September 2024 – Save the date for the Year-End Events in Chile and Germany
In the recent Internal News the Director General has announced that the Year-End events in Garching will take place on 7 December at Hilton Munich Airport hotel and on Saturday 14 December at Radisson Blu Plaza El Bosque Santiago.
16 September 2024 - Update of Retirees Email List
The Retirees Email Addresses listing has been updated with the latest information.
15 August 2024 - ESO Pensioners Summer Gathering
The photos of this year's (2024) summer gathering on 13 August in the biergarten "Mühlenpark" in Garching " are availlable. A big thanks to Gerardo for these pictures.
14 August 2024 – ELT The ELT Lab Visits
The recent video stream ELT LabVisits: ETF and M1 Coating Process Tour has been made available to us. The video is visible under Downloads (restricted access).
Please note that this video is for ESO Internal Use only. Thanks to Ricardo Parra for making this possible and to Dominik Schneller for sharing the video with us.
14 August 2024 - Update of Retirees Email List
The Retirees Email Addresses listing has been updated with the latest information.
16 July 2024 - Update of Retirees Email List
The Retirees Email Addresses listing has been updated with the latest information.
19 June 2024 - ISA Summer Party on 28 June
As already announced by Erik Allaert in the email from June 2, the ISA summer party at the HQ will take place on Friday 28 June, starting at 16:30. Tickets for ESO pensioners cost 20 €/person. There is no online ticket sales - contact Nelma Silva (phone 3006286 - E.4.05) or Mylène Francois (phone 3006350 - B.2.20) for tickets.
12 June 2024 - Some News from the Webmaster
Due to more strict IT security measures in response to a cyber security incident roughtly a month ago, it is currently slightly difficult to update this news page without being at ESO physically. News will therefore reach you via email until regular connection (VPN) and Web authoring tools become available again.
In the mean time, the Office for Science is still working on making the Astronomy for non-Astronomers (AfnA) talks available. The work is slightly delayed but I still hope that we have the talks available by the end of the month.
8 May 2024 - Problem with Newcomers Registration Form solved
The problem with the Newcomers Registration form is solved. After registration you should see the confirmation page and you should receive an email with the registration details. In case you don't received the confirmation email please contact the ESO GAC-EPA representative.
22 April 2024 - Update of Retirees Email List
The Retirees Email Addresses listing has been updated with the latest information.
15 April 2024 - Problem with Newcomers Registration Form
It appears that the Newcomers Registration form is not properly working. Despite correctly displaying the confirmation page after submitting the registration details are not forwarded. The problem is being investigated und will hopefully be resolved soon.
23 February 2024 - Update of Retirees Email List
The Retirees Email Addresses listing has been updated with the latest information.
06 Februrary 2024 - ESO Pensioners New Year's gathering
The photos of the New Year's gathering on 6 February in restaurant "Via Roma" are now available. A big thanks to the photographers for their contributions.
28 January 2024 - ESO Pensioners New Year's get-together on 6 Febrary
The most popular date for our New Year's get-together is Tuesday 6 February. The reservation is in the meantime confirmed, i.e. we will have our get-together on Tuesday 6 February 2024, at 15:00 in the Pizzeria Via Roma, Parkring 4, Garching-Hochbrück
As before, this annual meeting is sponsored for ESO Retirees by the GAC-EPA. And partners are also welcome.
We hope to see as many of you as possible in 10 days from now!
Kind regards -
Erik
23 January 2024 - International Staff Association, General Assembly
The ISA will hold a General Assembly on Tuesday 30 January at 10:00 CLST/14:00 CET. Please find below the agenda for our next General Assembly. To particate online please use the link provided on the Documents and Presentations page.
- CERN Pension Fund
- Cigna health care
- STAC summary:
- Research Period for faculty astronomers
- ESO values Rewards & Recognition scheme
- Summary of the 'step freeze' and 'delta advancement' situations
- ISC Priorities for 2024:
- Up-coming regular review
- Gender pay gap
- Work exchange scheme & Part time wor
- ISA finances
- Social activities
18 January 2024 - Amendments to the Rules and Regulations of the CERN Pension Fund effective 1 February 2024 and 1 July 2024
Please note that in December 2023, the CERN Council approved amendments to the Pension Fund Rules and Regulations that come into effect on the following dates:
- 1 February 2024: purchase of added periods of membership (Rules Article II 1.02, Regulations Chapter III)
- 1 July 2024: anticipated retirement (Rules Article II 2.05)
These amendments are considered technical changes. The CEO of the Pension Fund, Mr Doug Heron, will provide an online presentation of the amendments on 26th January 2024 at 14h Garching / 10h Chile. Please use the link provided on the Documents and Presentations page (restricted access).
Please note that the presentation will be recorded and made available after the meeting. For technical reasons the participation is limited to 300 attendees. Those who may not be able to join, will therefore be able to watch the video afterwards.
The updated Rules and Regulations will be available shortly on the Pension Fund’s website: https://pensionfund.cern.ch/en
18 January 2024: Save the Date - HQ Open House Day on 3 October 2024 - Update
From Susana Almagro
Dear ESO Pensioners,
This year the Open House Day, a campus-wide public outreach event, will take place on Thursday, 3 October 2024. This is the first open house event organised on the Garching Forschungscampus since the pandemic. The last event took place in 2018 and 5200 visitors seized the opportunity to explore ESO and enjoy the numerous activities provided by ESO staff.
As in previous years, ESO is planning to open the ESO Supernova and our headquarters to the public on 3 October 2024. Like at previous open house events, we are hoping to organise a range of fun and informative activities for visitors of all ages. For this we will need volunteers to support the Department of Communication and the ESO Supernova team during the event.
A call for activity proposals and for volunteers is planned to be issued in February, but for the time being those interested in participating are kindly asked to mark 3 October 2024 in their calendars. Note that 3 October is a public holiday in Germany.
With best regards,
Susana
Open House Day Coordinator
04 January 2024 – Viewgraphs for the ESO General Assembly 11 December 2023
The viewgraphs of the latest ESO General Assembly on 11 December 2023 have been added to the Documentation page.
04 January 2024 - Update of Retirees Email List
The Retirees Email Addresses listing has been updated with the latest information.
