Status of the Blue Ribbon Panel Eric Becklin

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Status of the Blue Ribbon PanelEric Becklin
17 July 2008
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Outline

• Material of the Science Vision
• Purpose of the Blue Ribbon Panel
• Charter of the Panel
• Status of Membership

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Overview of Vision Material

• Concise, clearly written, well documented and
  peer reviewed Science Vision publication, not
  more than 50 pages in length that conveys the
  compelling scientific contributions of SOFIA and
  its complementary and extending role for existing
  and planned space and ground-based IR
  observations.
• Executive summary of the above paper.
• Synopsis of the Science Vision, consisting of no
  more than 16 power point slides for use by the
  Decadal Survey committee as well as by the
  astronomy community in general.

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Purpose of Blue Ribbon Panel

• The Blue Ribbon panel will be constituted to
  review the New SOFIA Science Vision at a time
  where a large portion of the work has been done,
  but far enough before the final produce is
  released, so comments can be incorporated.

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Charter of Panel

• Review the Submitted Draft of the Science Vision
  publication
• Attend a one day oral presentation at ARC on 24
  Oct
• Provide oral and written evaluation of the
  material to determine if it successfully
• - Reflects important science
  investigations that command wide interest in the
  astronomical community
• - Articulates a unique role for SOFIA
  in attaching these investigations
• - Shows that the SOFIA observations are
  feasible with present and anticipated future
  instrumentation
• - Indicates how the SOFIA results will
  complement and enhance the discoveries from other
  observatories and missions

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Status of the Panel

• The Panel will be Chaired by John Mather (GSFC)
• It will include IR and Sub-millimeter experts
  including Airborne experience
• It will include experts in other astrophysical
  disciplines
• To date 4 other members has said they would
  serve
• -Mike Werner (JPL)
• -Gary Melnick (Harvard-Smithsonian CFA)
• -Hans Peter Roeser (U. Stuttgart)
• -Gillian Knapp (Princeton)
• Experts in Extra-Solar Planets, Theory and High
  Energy Astrophysics still be be asked