khagol_122.cdr

where 30 were originally planned for. The broad topics covered were General Relativity, Cosmography and Cosmology. The lectures were followed by extensive tutorial sessions, which on some days went on until 11 pmvoluntarily. The feedback for the program was overwhelmingly positive with a request for more such programs inTamil Nadu. T. R. Seshadri, V. Madhurima (CUTN) and Ranjeev Misra (IUCAA) coordinated the event. The First Billion Years of the Universe using Next-Generation Telescopes An international conference and school titled ‘The First Billion Years of the Universe using Next-Generation Telescopes’ was organized by one of the IUCAACentres for Astronomy Research and Development (ICARD), the Discipline of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Engineering (DAASE), Indian Institute of Technology Indore at its campus in Indore during January 20-31, 2020. The event was sponsored by a SPARC (MHRD) project titled ‘Imaging the first billion years of the universe with next- generation telescopes’, the Square Kilometre Array India consortiumof institutes and IUCAA. The aim of the conference was to discuss the present status and challenges faced by various ongoing and upcoming experiments around the globe, at radio and other wavelengths, that are trying to observe the most unknown phase in the history of our universe i.e. the Cosmic Dawn and the Epoch of Reionization (CD-EoR). The CD-EoR is the epoch when the first sources of light were born and the universe gradually changed its state from being neutral to ionized.Alarge number of leading astronomers (both foreign and Indian) have gathered during the first week of the event ( 20-24 January 2020 ) and gave invited and contributed talks on the status of the CD-EoR observations using different presently operating radio interferometers e.g. the GMRT, LOFAR, MWA, PAPER, HERA, HIRAX, Tianlai, CHIME, OWFA etc., and with the upcoming future observations with the humongous SKA. The alternative to radio interferometry, the radio monopole experiments e.g. EDGES, LEDA, SARAS etc and their importance were also discussed. Some of the speakers also discussed the challenges and advantages of observing this era using several future experiments e.g. Euclid, Athena, WF I RST, JWST, ELT, TMT, SPHEREx , T IME , CONCERTO etc. which will operate in other than radio wavelengths. A significant number of talks were also focused on strategies to extract the optimum amount of information from such future observations and their accurate interpretations using No. 122 - April 2020 11