The Cool Stars 16 conference (CS16) was held on the University of Washington
campus in Seattle, Washington during August 28 - September 2, 2010. The Cool
Stars series was initiated just over 20 years ago, in 1980, and now consists of meetings
held approximately every two years. This workshop series has become the preeminent
international meeting series covering cool star science. Over the six days of the
meeting, nearly 350 attendees presented and discussed many of the latest research
results in cool star and solar research. The main plenary sessions were spread over
five days and covered core areas of stellar research including the formation and
evolution of low mass stars and brown dwarfs, the determination of fundamental
stellar parameters, magnetic activity, and the solar-stellar connection. In addition to
these traditional areas of cool star research, two less traditional areas received special
attention at CS16: time domain studies of cool stars highlighting many of the exciting
new results emerging from the Kepler satellite; and studies of cool stars in the
galactic context, driven by the large impact the Sloan Digital Sky Survey has had on
cool star research.
In addition to the plenary sessions, the latest research in the field was presented and
discussed in a five day poster session and in 12 splinter sessions which rounded out
the scientific program of the meeting. Topics covered included fundamental stellar
properties from interferometry, multi-dimensional atmospheric modeling,
determining metallicities of the coolest dwarfs, what happens at the fully convective
boundary, planets around cool stars and their habitability, variablity of young stars,
ares and X-rays, and wide field surveys of cool dwarfs. These proceedings summarize
the scientific program presented at the meeting. The printed volume contains
papers from the main plenary sessions, summaries of the 12 splinter sessions, and
papers from the 15 poster finalists selected by the scientific organizing committee at
the meeting. Papers from the remaining poster presentations, as well as the papers
found in this volume, are available in the electronic version of the proceedings.
These proceedings are suitable for researchers and graduate students interested in
learning about the astrophysics of cool stars and the Sun, including formation,
circumstellar disks, magnetic activity, mass loss, and their distribution in the galaxy.