How to join commission 51 & the IAU
Any IAU member who is interested in becoming a member of Commission 51 should write or e-mail the President of the Commission with a brief note regarding his/her interest in the work of the Commission. The applicant will be provisionally accepted for membership and will thereafter be sent all communications. The application will be forwarded to the Commission 51 Organizing Committee for formal approval.
Applications for membership in the IAU are invited about a year before each General Assembly (the next General Assembly is in 2012), through the National Member Organizations, which currently represent 68 countries. Normally, minimum requirements are a Ph.D. in some branch of astrophysics or planetary science, but each National Member may set its own criteria (e.g., the USA normally requires 2 or 3 years of additional research). There are currently10,144 individual members of the IAU; individual members pay no dues.
Consultants
Astronomers and other scientists who are not IAU members, but who have an interest in Bioastronomy, may be accepted as consultants to Commission 51 and placed on our email list, by writing to the President of the Commission with a brief note on their background and interest in the field.
