Call for Letters of Application for Membership in the Joint Dark Energy Mission Interim Science Working Group
Scientists at United States institutions are invited to serve as a member of the Joint Dark Energy Mission Interim Science Working Group (ISWG). The members of the JDEM ISWG will provide the JDEM Project Offices at NASA and the Department of Energy (DOE) with scientific assistance during preliminary concept (Pre-Phase A) activities.
Near-term activities of the ISWG members will focus primarily on assessing the scientific approach to investigating the nature of dark energy with a medium-class JDEM-probe space mission. This assessment will complement previous analyses of JDEM mission concepts and scientific investigation approaches conducted by the agencies. To avoid conflicts of interest, ISWG members cannot be members of any National Academy of Science Astro2010 "Decadal Survey" panels.
NASA and DOE are soliciting application letters from individual scientists. Application letters are invited from individuals, not groups. The charter for the JDEM ISWG can be found at http://jdem.lbl.gov/
Each application letter should be one or two pages in length. The letter should describe the applicant's current involvement in dark energy research, including participation in major dark energy collaborations. Specific areas of expertise should be described, including topics in dark energy theory, figure of merit forecasting, observational sky surveys, instrumentation, and ancillary science relevant to JDEM.
The ISWG will be chaired by one of the selected community members. The NASA Project Scientist and the DOE Project Manager will be ex officio members of the ISWG.
The ISWG will be disbanded at an appropriate time in advance of any competitive process for selecting scientific participation on a possible mission.
The initial meeting of the JDEM ISWG will be held in Washington, DC. Subsequent meetings will mostly be by teleconference. Additional face-to-face meetings will be held only as needed.
Application letters should be submitted electronically by October 18, 2009. They should be addressed to both Dr. Richard Griffiths and Dr. Kathy Turner.
