First ASIONS (Asia SKA Initiative On NS) Meeting

The international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Project which is in its detailed design phase will be organizing the conference `SKA 2016: Science for the SKA generation' during 7-11 November 2016 in Goa, India. SKA observations of Pulsars will be instrumental to perform strong field tests of gravity, to explore exciting and exotic neutron star astrophysics and to detect sub-micro Hertz gravitational waves during the coming decades. Therefore, these topics are being actively pursued by the Pulsar and Neutron Star science working group that include many Indian and Asian researchers. We are organizing the `First ASIONS (Asia SKA Initiative On NS) Meeting' during 04-05 November 2016 in Goa to establish a regional Neutron Star science working group for enhancing the on-going nascent collaborations. Another important item in the agenda will be to explore ways to increase substantially our on-going efforts for Pulsar surveys with uGMRT. These surveys may be treated as SKA pathfinder ventures and expected to provide rich dividends in the near future. The two-day long meeting will have invited presentations and slots for detailed discussions to increase the current Asian participations in Pulsar related SKA projects.