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NICI Planet Search Campaign: List of Groups and Teams that Responded to the Call for Letters of Interest (Public List)

Joe Jensen, 31 Aug 2005

The following list includes the names and affiliations of team members that sent Letters of Interest to Gemini, announcing their intention to participate in the NICI Planet Search Campaign competition. The PIs of the teams below (or the person submitting the letter) agreed to have their teams’ membership posted on this list. The list is being publicized to all the respondents to the call for Letters of Interest, and is accessible on the public Gemini web pages.

The purpose of posting this list is to aid in the formation of teams that can compete for the NICI Planet Search campaign. It serves two purposes: first, the large, well-organized teams can identify potential collaborators that may contribute a resource that will make their proposal more competitive, and second, the small groups and teams can establish collaborations that will allow them to participate without having to lead a proposal.

The process of team formation in preparation for the NICI campaign competition is entirely at the discretion of the PI. No group is obligated to accept offers to participate by any other group or individual. It is at the discretion of the PI to decide what information, if any, is shared with potential collaborators. In the end, this is a competition, and it is not intended that this process result in one large all-inclusive collaboration. The Observatory would like proposing teams to explore a healthy range of scientific goals and ideas for conducting the NICI campaign. To help facilitate team formation, the Observatory asked permission to share the names of those submitting Letters.

The Call for Proposals will be issued ~15 September 2005, in which the detailed rules and requirements will be outlined. Proposals will be due 31 October 2005. This change to the original schedule was requested by the Gemini Operations Working Group to separate the NICI campaign proposal deadline from the rest of the regular Gemini proposals for 2006A to avoid confusion and to allow more time for proposal preparation. Information relevant to the proposal process (e.g., NICI characteristics and sensitivity estimates) will be sent to those who submitted Letters of Interest. The baseline campaign guidelines were outlined in the request for Letters of Interest (linked to www.gemini.edu ). In short, teams will be required to submit management plans, describe resources, and plans for data reduction and release. In addition to target lists, teams will be asked to state whether or not they prefer their target list to be public. Gemini is considering the possibility of either protecting targets on a public list from duplicate NICI observations, or keeping the target list confidential, but not both.

NICI performance measurements will not be available until well after the proposal deadline. For now, observing times and strategies will have to be based on performance estimates, which will be updated and revised during commissioning on the telescope.

The Call for Proposals will be sent to all the teams that submitted Letters of Interest and posted on the public Gemini web site. Proposals will be accepted from any member of the Gemini community, even if a Letter of Interest was not submitted. Teams that span the Gemini partnership will have a competitive advantage, since the campaign should benefit the entire Gemini community.

Being listed below is not an obligation to submit a proposal or to participate on a particular team, nor is it required that a team include all the people listed on the Letter of Interest in the final proposal. It is up to the PI to make final team membership decisions.

List of Interested Teams and Individuals (listed by team in no particular order):

  • Angelle Tanner (JPL/Caltech, USA)
    • Chris McCarthy (San Francisco State U, USA)
    • Patrick Lowrance (Spitzer Science Center, USA)
    • Christophe Dumas (VLT)
    • Joe Carson (JPL/Caltech, USA)
    • Chris Gelino (Caltech, USA)
    • Stanimir Metchev (Caltech/UCLA, USA)
  • Maria Teresa Ruiz (U. de Chile)
  • Rene A. Mendez (U. de Chile)
  • Ray Jayawardhana (U. Toronto, Canada)
    • Alexis Brandeker (U. Toronto, Canada)
    • Ramiro de la Reza (Obs. Nacional, Brazil)
    • Sylvio Ferraz Mello (U. de Sao Paolo, Brazil)
    • John Gizis (U. Delaware, USA)
    • Mercedes Gomez (Obs. Astronomico de Cordoba, Argentina)
    • Valentin Ivanov (ESO, Chile)
    • Paul Kalas (UC Berkeley, USA)
    • Phil Lucas (U. Hertfordshire, UK)
    • Claudio Melo (U. de Chile)
    • Germano Quast (Lab. Nacional de Astrofisica, Brazil)
    • Alexander Scholz (U. Toronto, Canada)
    • Carlos A. O. Torres (Lab. Nacional de Astrofisica, Brazil)
  • Gustavo F. Porto de Mello (U. Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
    • Eduardo Janot Pacheco (U. de Sao Paolo, Brazil)
    • Sylvio Ferraz Mello (U. de Sao Paolo, Brazil)
    • Licio da Silva (Obs. Nacional, Brazil)
    • Eduardo Fernandez del Peloso (Obs. Nacional, Brazil)
  • Michael Endl (McDonald Observatory, U. Texas Austin, USA)
    • William D. Cochran (U. Texas, USA)
    • Ted von Hippel (U. Texas, USA)
    • G. Fritz Benedict (U. Texas, USA)
    • Marc Kuchner (NASA Goddard, USA)
    • Sebastian Els (Caltech, USA)
    • Artie P. Hatzes (Thueringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Germany)
    • Gordon A. H. Walker (UBC, Canada)
  • David Blank (James Cook U., Australia)
  • Graeme White (James Cook U., Australia)
    • Paul Shankland (James Cook U., Australia)
    • Greg Laughlin (UC Santa Cruz, USA)
    • Eugene Rivera (UC Santa Cruz, USA)
  • Hugh Jones (U. Hertfordshire, UK)
    • Jeremy Bailey (Macquarie U., Australia)
    • Paul Butler (Carnegie, USA)
    • Brad Carter (U. of Southern Queensland, Australia)
    • Debra Fisher (SF State U., USA)
    • Chris McCarthy (SF State U., USA
    • Geoff Marcy (UC Berkeley, USA)
    • Alan Penny (Rutherford Appleton Lab, UK; Harvard Smithsonian, USA)
    • Sean Ryan (Open U., UK)
    • Chris Tinney (AAO, Australia/UK)
    • Steve Vogt (UC Santa Cruz, USA)
  • Michael Liu (U. Hawaii, USA)
  • Mark Chun (U. Hawaii, USA)
  • Laird Close (U. Arizona, USA)
  • Matt Burleigh (U. Leicester, UK)
    • Paul Dobbie (U. Leicester, UK)
    • Nicolas Lodieu (U. Leicester, UK)
    • Emma Hogan (U. Leicester, UK)
    • Sarah Casewell (U. Leicester, UK)
    • Martin Barstow (U. Leicester, UK)
    • Richard Jaemson (U. Leicester, UK)
  • JJ Kavelaars (HIA, Canada)
    • Wes Fraser (U. Vic/HIA, Canada)
    • Matt Holman (CfA, USA)
    • Brenda Matthews (HIA, Canada)
    • Jane Sophia Greaves (St. Andrews, Canada)
  • Inseok Song (Gemini)
    • James Graham (UC Berkeley, USA)
    • Rene Doyon (U. Montreal, Canada)
    • Ben Zuckerman (UCLA, USA)
    • Mike Bessel (ANU, Australia)
    • Sebastian Lepine (AMNH, USA)
    • Charley Lineweaver (ANU, Australia)
    • Bruce Macintosh (LLNL, USA)
    • Francois Rigaut (Gemini)
    • Jay Farihi (Gemini)
    • Christian Marois (LLNL, USAL/Canada)
    • David Lafrenier (U. Montreal, Canada)
    • Eric Becklin (UCLA, USA)
    • Rob Jefferies (Keele U. UK)
    • Warrick Lawson (UNSW, Australia)
    • Travis Barman (UCLA, USA)
  • Subhanjoy Mohanty (CfA, USA)
    • Eric Mamajek (CfA, USA)
    • Adam Burgasser (MIT, USA)
    • Davy Kirkpatrick (Caltech/IPAC, USA)
    • Fred Adams (Michigan, USA)
    • Chris Tinney (AAO, Australia/UK)
    • Sandy Leggett (UKIRT, UK)

Last update 31 Aug 2005; Joe Jensen

Gemini Observatory Participants