The IAU XXXI General Assembly is drawing to a close

Credit: IAU/GA2022 NOC

The XXXI General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) concludes today in Busan, Korea. After being postponed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the meeting was held as the first hybrid general meeting with about 1,200 participants in person and about 700 attending online. The conference included seven symposia, 10 focus meetings with many sessions, as well as many other meetings of IAU departments, commissions and working groups.

The XXXI General Assembly of the IAU in Busan, Korea concludes today, Thursday 11 August 2022, after two busy weeks full of scientific talks and meetings. Despite the ongoing challenges due to COVID-19, the conference was a great success thanks to the dedication of the local organizing committee. In addition to being the first IAU General Assembly to be held in Korea, this meeting was also the first to have a hybrid format, with about 1,200 participants attending in person and about 700 joining online.

Conference attendees enjoyed a wide range of presentations, not only on technical topics within sub-disciplines of astronomy, but also on bigger picture developments, advances and collaborations within astronomy. There were seven symposia, 10 focus meetings and many other meetings organized by the IAU offices as well as by the departments and working groups of the executive committee.

The program also included a number of invited discourses and public lectures. Topics include early science performed with the James Webb Space Telescope; the state of the universe according to our modern understanding; the imaging of supermassive black holes with the Event Horizon telescope; and how the seemingly contradictory measurements of the Hubble constant can be resolved.

In addition to the scientific program, participants had the opportunity to join a star-studded party at BEXCO, the huge conference hall in Busan, as well as several local area tours of the region. Korean culture was woven into the conference itself, with the opening ceremony featuring a traditional Korean dance performance.

Highlights of all aspects of the program, from scientific meetings to public lectures and sightseeing opportunities, were collected in the e-newspaper (published each day of the conference.

The General Assembly also saw the launch of the NameExoWorlds 2022 competition (to mark the 10th anniversary of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD) (This competition invites everyone worldwide to propose names for 20 exoplanets and their host stars, which will be among the first targets of the James Webb Space Telescope.

Another major topic of discussion at the meeting was the new Center for the Protection of Dark and Quiet Sky from Interference by Satellite Constellations (CPS) (which was established in April this year. This new center aims to mitigate interference from new satellite constellations by optical and radio astronomy, and the collaborators had new observational results to share at the conference.

As this General Assembly was postponed by one year, the four IAU officers of the current triennium have already assumed their roles. However, the officers from both this and the previous triennial took part in the opening ceremony.

The four officers of the IAU during the current triennium are:

1. President: Debra Meloy Elmegreen2. Secretary General: Jose Miguel Rodríguez Espinosa3. President Elect: Willie Benz4. Assistant General Secretary: Diana Mary Worrell

Unusually for a general meeting, no business meetings were held and no resolutions were presented for voting, as this was all done virtually in 2021. During the meeting, there was an online vote in which national members voted to accept Georgia ( as a new national member .

Although new individual and junior members are usually announced at the General Assembly, this year they were announced (in June, bringing the number of junior members to over 1,000 for the first time and the total to around 12,500 members.

The closing ceremony included the handover of the flag to Cape Town, South Africa, which will host the XXXII IAU General Assembly. It will be held in 2024 after a break of only two years instead of three, due to the postponement of the XXXI General Assembly. The location of the XXXIII General Assembly in Rome, Italy was also announced.

Eight issues of the General Assembly newspaper were published during the meeting, which are available to read in full online ( Press releases can be found in the press release archive ( Photos from the meeting can be seen in the online gallery ( More information on XXXI General meeting of the IAU is available on the website (https://www.iauga2022.org/).

More info

The IAU is an international astronomical organization that unites more than 12,000 active professional astronomers from more than 100 countries around the world. Its mission is to promote and protect astronomy in all its aspects, including research, communication, education and development, through international cooperation. The IAU also serves as the internationally recognized authority for determining the designations of celestial bodies and their surface features. Founded in 1919, the IAU is the world’s largest professional organization for astronomers.

Connections

* IAU GA 2022 External Website – IAU GA 2022 Image Gallery – IAU GA 2022 Electronic Newspaper – http://www.iau.org/static/publications/ga_newspapers/20220810.pdf

Contacts

Lars Lindberg Christensen Director of IAU Communications Tel.: +1 520 461 0433 Mobile: +49 173 38 72 621 Email: lars.christensen@noirlab.edu

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