28 August 2014

White Papers Requested for Optical & Infrared Systems Study

Debra Elmegreen President, IAU

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The National Research Council’s Optical and Infrared (OIR) System Study Committee, which I chair, is charged with identifying the principal federal and non-federal capabilities in the US OIR system and making strategic recommendations to optimize the system for the best science return. The committee finds it vital to its deliberations to collect input from the astronomy community in the course of its work.

The committee has developed a list of questions about the OIR system, and we invite any researcher or group in the community to answer any or all of these questions in a brief (1- to 2-page) white paper. The questions are posted on the committee’s website so that you can begin formulating your responses.

We are developing an input submission site to facilitate your responses. This site will go live soon. We will post an announcement that the submission site is live on the same website linked above. We ask for all input to be submitted by 9:00 am EDT on Monday, 6 October 2014.

Understanding the community’s perspectives is crucial to the committee’s task and the resulting report to the National Science Foundation, so we thank you in advance for your generous assistance in this regard.

Please direct all questions to the committee via email to [email protected].