The first Middle East-Africa IAU Meeting (MEARIM) took place from 5-9 April 2008 at the Cataract Pyramids Hotel Resort in Giza, Egypt. The meeting website is to be found by clicking here .

The meeting was held at the Cataract Pyramids Hotel and Resort in Giza, near Cairo:

On the first full day of the meeting I gave a talk about our ESSENCE project and doing cosmology with Type Ia supernovae. Here I am after my talk:

A copy of my Powerpoint talk can be obtained by clicking here .

A copy of a short conference paper based on my talk can be obtained by clicking here .

Here, from left to right are: Dr. Athem Alsabti (University College London), Dr. Kevin Krisciunas (Texas A&M University), Sheikh Salman bin Jabor Al Thani (Arab Union for Astronomy & Space Sciences), and Dr. Catherine Cesarsky (President of the International Astronomical Union).

There is a big market in downtown Cairo called Khan al Khalili. The shop owners are quite aggressive trying to get you to come in. Many offered to marry my wife Sandra. One offered me 200 camels for her! A lot of people just started talking to Sandra in Spanish, knowing that she was Hispanic.

On April 7th we had an excursion to the nearby pyramids and sphinx. Here is Sandra and two guys who managed to extract the equivalent of 10 dollars US for a very brief camel ride.

A guard at the pyramids:

The next day we were back at the Pyramids for a sound, light, and laser show. The President of the Czech Republic was there too. Here is the head of the sphinx with a whole face projected on it.

We became friends with this shop owner named Mohamed. He kindly invited us to his house one day for lunch.

On April 8th the gala conference dinner was a cruise on the Nile. Here I am with the principal female dancer and Hakeem Oluseyi (Florida Institute of Technology). Photo by George Melikidze.

On April 10th we flew to Paris to see the City of Lights for the first time.

Of course one should see the Notre Dame cathedral.

Here is the famous Moulin Rouge club.

The statue of U. J. J. Leverrier (1811-1877) in front of the Paris Observatory.

Some streets in Paris are named after astronomers, such as Galileo, Jean Dominique Cassini, and William Herschel.

Rue Galilee is a side street to the Champs Elysee.

Last modified on 16 April 2008.

Go back to Kevin Krisciunas home page by clicking here .

Please address any comments to: krisciunas@physics.tamu.edu