The visitor/seminar committee (VC) is responsible for organizing the bi-weekly seminars for the CITA
flagship. The VC has a faculty member as chair and has 2 other faculty members as well as 2-3
postdoctoral fellows. Graduate students may participate fully in nominations and VC discussions as
observers on the committee and should not be excluded from the process; however, graduate
students shall not be tasked as being hosts. The VC is charged with ensuring a vibrant and exciting
range of seminars on different subject matter from individuals of a wide range of astrophysical
topics. Long-term visits and non-astrophysics seminars require input from and explicit approval
from the CITA Director. MOU visits will be tracked by the VC and reported regularly to the CITA
Director to ensure that CITA is fulfilling its commitments to its partners and vice versa.

The blackboard seminar committee has a faculty advisor and two postdoctoral fellows. This group is
responsible for ensuring the weekly blackboard seminars are arranged. The blackboard seminars
are intended to provide training in preparing and delivering blackboard lectures of the highest
quality. The seminar committee will consider best practices and provide feedback to junior speakers
on the “dos” and “don’ts” of giving such a seminar.

The postdoctoral fellowship selection committee has a Faculty chair and all CITA faculty serve on this committee. The committee has input from postdoctoral scholars on areas of specific domain
overlap. The selection committee is charged with ensuring CITA selects fellows that best represent
our values of scientific leadership, intellectual creativity, and technical depth as our 3-part rubric.

The CITA Mentorship committee ensures that the National Mentorship program functions properly
to achieve its aim. This committee has a single faculty member as a lead who ensures mentorship
teams are meeting periodically and team changes can be made as needed. The faculty lead will
maintain/share materials related to mentoring that may assist teams e.g. recordings of job-related
panel discussions and articles about job applications and career paths.

The CITA Computing committee ensures that CITA’s computational infrastructure is adequate for the
computational needs of CITA scholars. This committee has a faculty member as chair and the CITA
HPC and IT staff as members along with interested CITA faculty and postdocs. This committee is
charged with procurement, monitoring, and maintenance of new HPC systems as required.

Chair: Falk Herwig
Current Members: Falk Herwig, Catherine Lovkin; Rodrigo Fernandez, James Taylor, Brett Gladman, James Wadsley, Bart Ripperda

This advisory committee is charged with evaluating the National landscape for computing with a specific eye on computational astrophysics. It is charged with understanding and evaluating the needs within the CITA Inc. National community not only for the infrastructure and support for the next generation of astrophysical code development but also for the hardware and software infrastructure required for future computations. The subcommittee will produce Amicus Briefs at a cadence of once per 5 years or more frequently as is deemed necessary and useful by the CITA Inc. national community.

The Chair will be responsible for organizing the committee and will provide a report (envisioned as a PowerPoint update) at regular intervals to the CITA Council and the CITA Inc. community. On certain occasions, not envisioned to be more frequently than once per five years, this committee will draft a written report in the form of a White Paper with recommendations.

Chair: Scott Tremaine
Current Members: Doug Johnstone, Peter Martin

The committee will evaluate applications to CITA’s visitor program from foreign scientists who face threats to their lives or their careers in their home countries. The committee will consider applications from post-Ph.D. researchers working mainly in theoretical astrophysics who plan an extended visit either to any university in Canada. It will meet on a case-by-case basis and make recommendations to the Director of CITA.

Chair: Kaitlin Shutz, David Curtin
Members: Joseph Bramante, Robert Brandenberger, Evan McDonough, Larry Widrow

The subcommittee on physics will work on interfacing with the theoretical physics community in areas of mutual interest. The subcommittee will consider how to engage with the CAP community which is not naturally captured in CASCA membership and seek out new members from the physics community. Prime examples of this are areas such as fundamental high energy theory which touches on early universe cosmology, astroparticle theory that touches on astrophysics directly and indirectly, and nuclear theory with its close connections to the study of neutron stars. These theorists might find a home either in CASCA or CAP or both and we would like to ensure they consider CITA an academic “home.”

The subcommittee will make recommendations to CITA Council on the best way to engage this community and will be charged with alerting the CITA Council to opportunities for CITA engagement and support. This may include mechanisms for membership in CITA Inc., synergizing with existing particle theorists (such as those at CITA Inc. institutions and at other endeavors like the Perimeter Institute, the McDonald Institute, and TRIUMF).