SOFIA 2015 science campaigns, Observers' Workshop in May, and Other Science News CONTENTS: 1) SOFIA Begins 2015 Science Campaigns 2) SOFIA Observers' Workshop, May 20-21, 2015 3) 30 Years of Photodissociation Regions - A Symposium in Honor of David Hollenbach 4) Presentations from the Seattle AAS SOFIA splinter session available online 1) SOFIA Begins 2015 Science Campaigns SOFIA resumed science flights on January 13, 2015, after returning from a five-month Heavy Maintenance Visit to the Lufthansa Technik facility in Hamburg, Germany. The SOFIA aircraft was subjected to a careful nose-to-tail inspection and standard overhaul conducted on all aircraft after accrual of a certain number of flight hours. Preventive maintenance and upgrade work was also performed on the 17-ton telescope assembly during SOFIA's time in Germany. The first science campaign of the new year employed the GREAT far-IR heterodyne spectrometer (P.I. Rolf Guesten, MPIfR). Science flights continued in February with a campaign using the FORCAST mid-IR camera (P.I. Terry Herter, Cornell U.) followed by flights to complete commissioning of the EXES mid-IR high-resolution spectrograph (P.I. Matt Richter, U.C.-Davis). The February flights will conclude SOFIA's Cycle 2 year. SOFIA begins Cycle 3 science observations in March 2015, continuing through January 2016. Cycle 3 programs span a broad range of astronomical topics including studies of the interstellar medium, star formation, post-main sequence stellar evolution, asteroids and comets, and extrasolar planets. The observatory is expected to be deployed to the Southern Hemisphere in June-July 2015, with science flights based out of Christchurch, New Zealand. The deployment will allow observations of objects difficult or impossible to access from the Northern Hemisphere such as the Galactic Center. Observations from the southwestern Pacific of a Pluto stellar occultation on June 29, less than three weeks before the New Horizons flyby of the Pluto system, are planned pending Program Office approval. 2) SOFIA Observers' Workshop, May 20-21, 2015 Location: The Historic Adobe Building, 157 Moffett Boulevard, Mountain View, Calif. To help in planning the workshop, please register by April 17. The SOFIA Science Center will host a workshop in Mountain View, California, on May 20-21, 2015, after the release of the SOFIA Cycle 4 Call for Proposals. The workshop is aimed to serve current and future users of the observatory - to help them write excellent proposals for SOFIA observing time, and to provide guidance in analyzing SOFIA data. The workshop will cover SOFIA observing capabilities, instrument characteristics, proposal preparation tools, data reduction pipeline, and calibration. Experienced ground-based and airborne infrared observers will learn about the particular characteristics of SOFIA and its instrumentation. Those new to the field will receive sufficient introduction to SOFIA to begin designing observing programs and preparing proposals. Participants are encouraged to contribute posters based on SOFIA observations or on topics related to future research opportunities with SOFIA. The workshop agenda will include time for poster sessions. Details about the workshop and links to the registration page can be found at: http://www.sofia.usra.edu/Science/workshops/SOFIA_Workshop_2015/workshop.html Please note that there is no registration fee, but space in the workshop will be reserved on a first-come, first-served basis. General Investigators who have obtained SOFIA data are invited to visit the SOFIA Science Center during the day after the workshop, Friday, May 22, if they want to discuss specific issues regarding their data with observatory staff members. Please note that such a visit will require access to NASA Ames; processing a visitor badge request for non-U.S. citizens requires at least 30 days' notice. 3) 30 Years of Photodissociation Regions - A Symposium in Honor of David Hollenbach Dates: Sunday, June 28 - Friday, July 3, 2015 Location: Asilomar Conference Center, Pacific Grove, California The first models for photodissociation regions (PDRs) appeared thirty years ago. These models described the interaction of far-ultraviolet photons with dense neutral atomic gas separating the highly ionized hydrogen plasma from the surrounding molecular cloud in which O and B stars are born. Since those early days, the scope of PDR research has widened greatly to include surfaces of protoplanetary disks, photoevaporation of globules and pillars, planetary nebulae, characteristics of diffuse interstellar clouds, and the nuclei of starburst and ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGS), ranging from the here-and-now all the way back to the era of the earliest star formation when galaxies were assembled. With results from the Herschel Space Observatory and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array now becoming widely available, it is timely to organize a symposium on the many facets of PDRs and their role in studies of the Universe, while at the same time honoring one of the pioneers of these studies, David Hollenbach. The goals of this meeting are to overview the state of the art in theoretical PDR studies, review the processes that control the physical and chemical conditions in PDRs and their emission characteristics, and compare and contrast models with recent observations of PDRs. More information about the symposium can be found at: http://pdr30.strw.leidenuniv.nl/ The SOFIA Science Center is one of the symposium sponsors, and is making small travel grants available to help students attend. Please see the website for details. 4) Presentations from the Seattle AAS SOFIA splinter session available online The SOFIA Science Center hosted a splinter session, "SOFIA Mission Status and Science Update" during the winter 2015 AAS meeting in Seattle. The presenters and talk titles are listed below. Presentation slides are available at: http://www.sofia.usra.edu/Science/workshops/225.html Pamela Marcum: Program Overview Erick Young: Science and Mission Overview Matt Richter: EXES Science (mid-IR spectrometer) Randolf Klein: FIFI-LS Science (far-IR imaging spectrometer) Andrew Helton and Charles Woodward: FORCAST Science (mid-IR camera w/ grisms) Ryan Hamilton: FLITECAM Science (near-IR camera w/ grisms) Please feel free to direct questions and comments to the SOFIA Science Center help desk at: sofia_help {at} sofia.usra.edu