Breathe Charity Fund together with Ukrainian Astronomical Association organize fundraising for supporting local astrophysics and cosmology community.
Recently one of our colleagues has met young Ukrainian 27-year-old astrophysicist Olena Kompaniiets, who works at the Main Astronomical Observatory (MAO) of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in the department of extragalactic astronomy and astroinformatics. She studies active galactic nuclei. Olena is the head of young scientists’ board of MAO, local science popularizer, and pro-active volunteer from the first days of the war.
Recent article in English about Olena published in local media “We are Ukraine” is available here: https://www.weareukraine.info/science-has-always-been-my-dream-ukrainian-astrophysicist-olena-kompaniiets/. Her own story in English is also available on web-site of the largest scientific Ukrainian conference INSCIENCE at this link: https://inscience.io/en/women_in_science/olena-kompaniiets/.
In their conversations our colleague was wondering about Olena’s science activity during the war, and was deeply impressed by sad conditions of local astrophysics and cosmology community, e.g. her monthly salary as a scientist varies from USD 100 to 250 only.
- Powerful laptop for Olena:
“Pre-war, under our grants we were not allowed to buy anything exceeding USD 300, and now we don’t have even this. My computer at work is a stationary PC, to which we bought individual parts not exceeding this amount in combined costs. If there are blackouts in Kyiv again, like last year, I will not be able to work with this PC. Moreover, it is not powerful enough to perform my scientific tasks in any event.
In this regard, a powerful laptop would really help me (the one I have, I bought 4 years ago with my first own funds collected on my private lectures). It would be great if it was an Intel Core i9 processor of the latest generation, preferably 12 cores (this is 24 threads in parallel computing, which significantly increases the speed of computation) and RAM of at least 32 GB (the more the better).”
In my current work, I use numerical simulations to find the best physical model for describing the observed emission of the galaxy. The number of cores and RAM is the main thing that limits my calculations and takes the most time, as I must run numerous models with different parameters and sort them manually. On my own laptop, I can run a maximum of 1 million combinations, which is merely nothing, as it is enough to describe only the stellar component of the galaxy. But there is also dust, nebular emission and active galactic nucleus, i.e. supermassive black hole on which falling matter is accreting. This is the main technical issue and difficulty I face in my work.”
DONATION LINK for powerful laptop (cost for appropriate model varies from USD 3,500 to USD 4,500) for Olena: https://pay.fondy.eu/s/GFoygv4B8.
- Data storage for Main Astronomical Observatory:
“For the department where I work and the Ukrainian virtual observatory in general, there are not enough disks for data, i.e. we do not have appropriate own data storage. The one we have is very old. Nearly a year ago our 10-year astrophysics unique observational work was destroyed due to damage of old-fashioned data storage caused by blackouts in Kyiv.
Pre-war we calculated that the full cost of updating such a storage amounts to approx. USD 17,000. We applied for a grant from National Research Foundation of Ukraine, and the agency intended to buy this expensive equipment. However, after 24 February 2022, all the funds were sent to the army, so now this has been suspended for an indefinite period.
Relevant equipment includes (1) NAS SYNOLOGY RackStation RS2821RP+ for 16 disks, (2) 16 main plus 2 back-up Seagate 22TB HDDs, (3) UPS Smart LogicPower-6000 PRO.”
DONATION LINK for data storage (cost for indicated equipment amounts to approx. USD 17,000 in Ukraine): https://pay.fondy.eu/s/c4vAvgpw2H.
For tax-deductible donations, please send the funds using the details below.
Breathe Charity Fund obtained a 501(c)(3) status on the back of King Baudouin Foundation United States, a friendly US fund, and can collect tax-deductible donations:
- Donor name and contact information for a tax receipt;
- Expected date of transfer;
- Amount Bank: Citibank, 12 W 48th St, New York, NY 10036 Routing Number: 021000089;
- Beneficiary: King Baudouin Foundation;
- United States (KBFUS), 551 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2400, New York, NY 10176;
- Account Number: 9970182790;
- Please write Friends of Charity Fund “BREATHE” in the wire memo/special instructions.