Transactions IAU, Volume XXVIB Proc. IAU XXVI General Assembly, August 2006 Karel A. van der Hucht, ed. c  2008 International Astronomical Union doi:10.1017/S1743921308023855 COMMISSION 51 BIOASTRONOMY BIOASTRONOMY PRESIDENT Karen J. Meech VICE-PRESIDENT Alan P. Boss PAST PRESIDENT C. Stuart Bowyer ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Fabrizio Capaccioni, Pascale Ehrenfreund, Carlos Eiroa, William B. Hubbard, David W. Latham, Eduardo L. Mart´ ın, Michel Mayor, David Morrison, Raymond P. Norris, Jill C. Tarter PROCEEDINGS BUSINESS MEETING on 18 August 2006 1. Introduction Commission 51 met on 18 August 2006. President Karen Meech chaired the meeting and there were 16 members present, including vice-president Alan Boss, and OC member David Morrison. 2. Bioastronomy 2007 One of the premier activities of our Commission is the organization of a triennial Bioastron- omy meeting. The series of international Bioastronomy meetings has been ongoing since 1984. Bioastronomy, or Astrobiology, is a rapidly growing field, and there are an increasing number of international meetings which cover this subject area. One of the major activities during the past three years has been to work with members of the Federation of Astrobiology Organizations to try to reduce the number of meetings by looking for opportunities to hold joint congresses. Table 1. Commission 51 Bioastronomy meetings year IAU sponsorship location 1984 IAU Symposium No. 112 Boston, MA, USA 1987 IAU Colloquium No. 99 Balaton, Hungary 1990 Val Cenis, France 1993 Santa Cruz, CA, USA 1996 IAU Colloquium No. 151 Capri, Italy 1999 Kohala Coast, HI, USA 2002 IAU Symposium No. 213 Hamilton Island, Australia 2004 Reykjavik, Iceland 2007 San Juan, Puerto Rico To this end representatives from IAU Commission 51, ISSOL ( International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life), AbSciCon (Astrobiology Science Conference), and the NAI (NASA Astrobiology Institute) met in September 2004 to formulate a plan for meeting coordination. The outcome of the 9/04 meeting was an agreement between ISSOL and IAU Commission 51 to hold a simultaneous meetings in 2008 (one year later than the nominal Commission 51 meeting schedule) with some joint sessions at a site to be mutually selected. At the 2005 summer business 142