Introduction

The next biennial conference of the National Program "Physics and Chemistry of the Interstellar Medium" (PCMI) will take place at the École Normale Supérieure, from October 24 to 28, 2022.

The PCMI National Program is a CNRS/INSU project-based program also supported by CNRS/INP, CNRS/INC, CNES and CEA (www.pcmi.cnrs.fr). It animates research between physicists, chemists and astrophysicists to progress in the understanding of the interstellar and circumstellar environments of our galaxy and other galaxies.

Three major questions motivate the program:

• (1) the formation of large interstellar structures and their link to star and planet formation,
• (2) the role of the interstellar medium in the evolution of our galaxy and nearby and distant galaxies, and
• (3) the role of the cycling of matter between phases in the growth of molecular complexity

After a PCMI 2020 conference entirely online due to the pandemic situation, a « face-to-face » participation is strongly encouraged, in order to promote exchanges between teams and initiate new collaborations. However, as we are aware of the difficulties that this format is likely to cause for several members of the PCMI community, participation in « remote » mode will nevertheless be offered, at a reduced rate. The presentations will be recorded and posted on the conference website and via a YouTube channel. In order to allow young foreign researchers in our laboratories to fully benefit from the presentations, the talks may be in English and the slides should be.

Call for contributions

The call for contributions will be open from April 11, 2022 to May 30, 2022. We particularly encourage PhD students and post-doctoral researchers, as well as teams that have obtained PCMI funding to present their work, but the call is of course open to any team working on the core themes of the program. About thirty oral contributions will be selected, each lasting 20 minutes (15 minutes talk + 5 minutes for questions). Two poster sessions of one hour and a half each will be organized, and participants will have the possibility to upload a short video presentation of their poster. The posters will be displayed in the Hall of the Physics Department of the ENS, where the coffee breaks will take place, for the full duration of the conference.

Update June 23 : The abstract submission page has been reopened until August 31, but only posters contributions are now accepted at this time.

Thematic Workshops

In addition to the oral presentations, four thematic workshops are organized:

1. Cosmic-rays and interstellar medium
   
2. Accounting for the uncertainties, from the laboratory to the observations, through the model
   
3. Prospective for the detection of new molecules in the interstellar medium
   
4. PCMI in the JWST era: physico-chemistry data and models for the exploitation of the observations
   

Workshops 1 and 2 will take place in parallel, on the morning of wednesday 26.

Workshops 3 and 4 will take place in parallel, on the morning of thursday 27.

Proposals for contributions to the workshops should be addressed directly to the workshop organizers, independently from the conference submission process.

Social Events

• A conference dinner is being organized on wednesday, October 26. Participants are asked to specify when registering whether they plan to attend. Accompanying persons may join for an extra fee, to be determined. Details will be posted here.
  
• Social events are being organized and will be offered to the participants on tuesday, October 25. At this time, we have secured a visit of the Senate (Palais du Luxembourg) for 40 people and are working with Observatoire de Paris to organize a visit of the historic Perrault building for another group. Registration for these events will be handled separately, by e-mail, in september. Details will be posted here.
  

Outreach Conference

An outreach conference will be proposed to the general public on tuesday, October 25, at 8pm. The speaker will be Anaëlle Maury (AIM, CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, Université de Paris), on the topic "Naissance des étoiles et des planètes: une histoire cosmique des origines de la vie". See here for the abstract (in French)

Registration and fees

Participants are welcome to register from now to September 2.

Once registered, participants should proceed to payment through "Azur-Colloque", as explained on the "Payment" page here.

The registration fees include coffee breaks, five lunches and conference dinner.

• Permanent researcher: 300€ TTC
• Non-permanent researcher: 200€ TTC
• Participation in remote mode: 100€ TTC