Focus On: Science in the Era of TMT: A Workshop Sponsored by the TMT Project
  Betsy Barton, Department of Physics & Astronomy
  University of California, Irvine

Many of us who work in the middle of the TMT project have been excited about its scientific capabilities for a long time. But now, with so many recent developments shaping TMT into a real observatory, it's time for us to share our enthusiasm for the project with the astronomical community as a whole. Regardless of the eventual partnerships contributing funding to the project, TMT and its results will be used by the entire world.

To this end, the TMT project is sponsoring a workshop at the Beckman Center of the National Academies from July 23-25, 2007. All members of the astronomical community are invited to attend. The workshop will provide an opportunity to hear from people both inside and outside the project about exciting science that will be enabled by the telescope.

There is no fee to attend the workshop. Please check out the conference web page at: http://www.physics.uci.edu/TMT-Workshop

With a primary mirror that has nearly an order of magnitude more collecting area than any optical or infrared telescope yet built, TMT will usher astrophysics into a new era. Even those of us who think about the telescope every day have barely begun to digest all the implications of this fact. A project of this magnitude requires the input from a broad community of scientists. Thus, we hope that the workshop will help gather ideas and input from the astronomical community. We would especially like to hear about science that may influence later-generation instrumentation for the telescope. The time is also ripe to develop specific, community-based ideas about TMT's overall scientific potential. We are eager to plant the seeds of ideas that will turn into legacy projects with TMT.

We are currently in the process of inviting speakers to the workshop, and we are accepting contributed talks and posters as well. We would really like to hear from you! Please check out the web page and consider attending, or even giving a talk or poster. Most of the speakers are not "experts" on TMT at all! There is also no particular science focus for the workshop. We are happy to hear about all areas, including even thoughts about the new, unexpected findings that will certainly lie within TMT discovery space.