ALMA Cycle 1 science observations continued until 28 January 2014 and started again during the third week of February. Seven periods of observations of about 100 hours each have been executed, and about 35% of the estimated number of observation executions needed for Cycle 1 have been completed. All observed data are under analysis or have been delivered to scientists.

Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo, Japan, 8-11 December 2014

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has been producing a growing number of impressive and transformational science results as the most powerful mm/submm interferometer in the world. Held in central Tokyo, the aim of this workshop is to highlight the science results from ALMA obtained during the first three years of science operations. The science topics include all fields of astronomy: cosmology and galaxies in the distant Universe; nearby galaxies and the Galactic Centre; the interstellar medium and star formation in our own Galaxy; astrochemistry, circumstellar disks, exoplanets and the Solar System; stellar evolution and solar physics; and fundamental physics.

ESO Workshop, ESO Headquarters, Garching, Germany, 13-17 October 2014

The study of stellar populations is one of the most relevant diagnostics to constrain galaxy formation and evolution. Quantitative analyses of the stellar content of galaxies pave the way to 'convert' starlight into physical quantities like stellar masses, chemical abundances and star formation rates, and to trace the evolution and chemical enrichment history of galaxies.

The PIONIER science meeting will be held on 13–14 January 2014, followed by the VLTI community days (15–16 January), and is organized by IPAG, ESO and Eii. The spirit of the meeting is to provide a direct way for the community to exchange ideas with those at ESO who take care of the VLTI.

The VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS) is an ongoing Large Programme to map in detail the large-scale distribution of galaxies at 0.5<z<1.2. The project is focused on precisely measuring galaxy clustering and related cosmological quantities, while providing a detailed description of galaxy properties and evolutionary trends, when the Universe was about half its current age. The survey includes a broad legacy for the community, with fairly fast release of the measured redshifts.

If you wish to conduct a PhD in astronomy-astrophysics within one of the largest centres of astrophysical research in the world, which covers every subject from planets, stars, and galaxies to cosmology, you should seriously consider applying to the IMPRS studentship programme in Munich.

The Science Archive Facility now provides access to reduced scientific data obtained with the UVES spectrograph mounted on the VLT. More than 75000 spectra of point-like sources obtained in "ECHELLE mode" from the beginning of 2000 until 2013 are now published. The data consist of extracted wavelength- and, whenever possible, flux-calibrated 1-dimensional spectra in tabular format following the established ESO science data products standard.

ESO has recently expanded and improved the user experience in obtaining information about, and data from, Service and Visitor Mode runs on the Run Progress Pages. These pages, available via the User Portal link View your list of Observing Runs, now provide links for accessing all data from a run, data from one or more single OBs from a run, or even data from a single execution of a single OB. In addition, there is increased flexibility in how the user can specify the scope and content of pdf-formatted night logs on the Paranal Night Reports page. Full details are available by clicking on the Run Progress Legend tab on the Run Progress pages.

After a very successful start of commissioning in November 2012, KMOS officially began scientific operations this month. KMOS is an integrated-field-unit (24 sub-fields), medium-resolution (R~3000–4000) spectrograph covering the 0.8–2.5 micron region of the spectrum.

Herbig Ae/Be (HAeBe) stars are a class of early-type pre-main sequence objects whose stellar mass corresponds to the transition regime between Solar-type stars and high-mass stars. They are generally bright at most wavelengths allowing a detailed view of their evolving environment and are pivotal objects for the formation of both stars and planets. The high-resolution observational and theoretical advances of the past 10 to 15 years provide the primary motivation and the evolution of the circumstellar disc material constitutes the main, but not the exclusive topic, for the workshop. Areas to be addressed include circumstellar disc structure, transition and debris discs, disc dispersal, jets and outflows, young clusters and the impact of future instrumentation.