Keck Community Scientific Strategic Planning Meeting

18 September 2009

Organizer: Chris Martin, Caltech, cmartin@srl.caltech.edu.

 

The last day of the Keck Science Meeting will be a Keck Scientific Strategy meeting. The Keck Science Steering Committee and WMKO, Caltech, and UC Observatory Directors will present discussions of the Keck strategic planning process, the draft Keck Scientific Strategic Plan, outlooks for resources for new initiatives, our efforts to engage with the Astro2010 process, and the relationship between Keck and TMT in the next 10-20 years.  We have invited talks reviewing currently approved initiatives. We will solicit opportunities for other members of the community to present ideas and visions for the next 10-20 years for the Observatory. We will also invite the community to send in written questions that require a thoughtful response, and we will include a period to address these questions and additional questions and open discussion from the community.

 

Agenda

           

  • 8:30 Introduction and Objectives of Meeting [Martin] (15 min)

               

  • 8:45 Overview of Strategic Planning process & resulting Strategic Plan [Brodie] (45 min)

               

  • 9:30 Keck and the System, Astro2010 activities [Bolte/Kulkarni/Armandroff] (30 min)

               

  • 10:00 The future of WMKO in the TMT era [Bolte/Kulkarni] (30 min)

               

  • 10:30 Break

               

  • 10:45 Resource outlooks [Armandroff] (Federal, Development, Time trades) (45 min)

               

  • 11:30 Flow-down of Strategic Priorities to Annual and 5-year WMKO Plan [Armandroff/Lewis] (30 min)

               

  • 12:00 Lunch (60 min)

               

  • 1:00 Key Initiatives

    o   1:00 NGAO [Max, Wizinowich, Morris, NSAT] (80 min)

    o   2:20 KCWI [Martin] (25 min)

    o   2:45 Highly efficient operations [Armandroff/Lewis/TBD] (25 min)

    o   3:10 Flexibility/Time-Domain Astronomy [Prochaska] (10 min)

    o   3:20 High resolution LRIS upgrade [Cohen] (10 min)

    o   3:30 Wide-field spectroscopy [Brodie/Bernstein] (25 min)

               

  • 4:00 Summary of community input, responses to-date, and planned future responses [Prochaska, TBD] (15 min)

               

  • 4:15 Contributed talks & visions, discussion of submitted questions  open discussion [Martin/Brodie] (75 min)

    o   Gene Serabyn -- Pupil Masking for Extreme AO Astronomy (10 min)

    o   Naranjan Thatte -- Oxford SWIFT (15 min)

    o   Mike Rich -- Multi-Object High Resolution Spectroscopy: Science Case (10 min)

               

  • 5:30 Wrap-up [Martin/Brodie] (15 min)

               

  • 5:45 Reception (90 min)

     

    Documents & Links

     

    Keck Scientific Strategic Plan (draft)

     

    Inputs to Astro2010

     

    Inputs to the State of the Profession Panel

                

  • The Role of the W. M. Keck Observatory in U.S. Astronomy

                

  • The Value of the Keck Observatory to NASA and Its Scientific Community

    Inputs to the Program Prioritization Panel

                

  • The W. M. Keck Observatory: A Private/Public Partnership Enabling Frontier Astrophysical Advances in the Coming Decade

                

  • W. M. Keck ObservatoryÕs Next Generation Adaptive Optics Facility