Dear Colleagues,
Below is the first announcement of the spectroscopic school, “Spectroscopic Data Analysis with iSpec”, which will be held from 2 to 5 September 2025 in Wrocław (Poland). Please feel free to distribute it amongst your colleagues and collaborators!
We hope to welcome you in Wroclaw,
Ewa Niemczura (on behalf of the SOC)
International Summer School: “Spectroscopic Data Analysis with iSpec”
University of Wrocław, Poland | 2-5 September 2025
The University of Wrocław is pleased to announce the international summer school Spectroscopic Data Analysis with iSpec, which will take place from 2 to 5 September 2025 in Wrocław (Poland).
This school aims to provide participants with a solid foundation in analysing stellar spectra, particularly in deriving atmospheric parameters and chemical abundances. The sessions will be structured around iSpec, a comprehensive tool designed to treat and interpret stellar spectroscopic data. As part of the learning experience, the school will also incorporate and explore recent advances in artificial intelligence.
iSpec facilitates a wide range of spectroscopic tasks, including removing cosmic rays, continuum normalization, resolution degradation, radial velocity correction, identification of telluric lines, and resampling. It also enables the determination of fundamental stellar parameters—such as effective temperature, surface gravity, metallicity, microturbulence, macroturbulence, and rotational velocity—for A, F, G, K, and M-type stars. These parameters can be derived through two complementary approaches: the synthetic spectral fitting technique and the equivalent width method.
The software integrates MARCS and ATLAS model atmospheres. It supports several widely used radiative transfer codes, including SPECTRUM (R. O. Gray), Turbospectrum (Bertrand Plez), SME (Valenti and Piskunov), MOOG (Chris Sneden), and Synthe/WIDTH9 (Kurucz/ATLAS). While iSpec offers a well-suited graphical interface for introductory use and educational purposes, its full potential is realized through its Python-based implementation. This approach is recommended for advanced scientific analyses as it ensures reproducibility and access to an extended set of features and customization options. iSpec is available at https://www.blancocuaresma.com/s/iSpec.
During the school, participants will receive a series of introductory lectures on iSpec and engage in hands-on exercises focused on determining the atmospheric parameters of A, F, G, K, and M-type stars. These exercises will use publicly available observational data and pre-computed synthetic spectra. The lecturers include the main developer of iSpec and experienced stellar spectroscopists who have extensively used this tool (among others) and have trained numerous PhD students and postdoctoral researchers.
The course is open to PhD and master’s students and early career scientists. There is no registration fee. All accepted participants will have accommodation and lunches covered during the workshop. The registration/application process will be open soon (http://ispec.astro.uni.wroc.pl).
SOC:
Sergi Blanco-Cuaresma <sblancocuaresma@cfa.harvard.edu>
Barry Smalley <b.smalley@keele.ac.uk>
Ewa Niemczura <niemczura@astro.uni.wroc.pl>
LOC:
Kszysztof Kotysz
Natalia Posiłek
Paulina Góra
Ewa Niemczura