SOFIA's recent first flights highlight its proximity to operations. Science observations will begin ramping up in the next few years with the initial set of instruments. The time is now ripe to envision the scientific and technological advances that will keep SOFIA an exciting and dynamic program over its twenty-year design lifetime. This workshop will examine science needs and relevant new and emerging detector and component technologies.

These new capabilities will arrive during a period of intense and rapid change of the scientific landscape: the stream of results flowing from projects such as Spitzer, Herschel, ALMA, JWST, and other facilities will greatly expand SOFIA's discovery potential. The workshop's goals are to evince the connections between the technological possibilities and the scientific opportunities, to develop a vision for extending SOFIA's productivity beyond the next decade, and to expand the awareness of SOFIA's potential.

See the official workshop website: http://www.sofia-vision.caltech.edu/

See the workshop presentation files here.

Workshop preliminary announcement flyer (pdf)

Scientific Organizing Committee:

Bob Gehrz, U. Minnesota
Reinhard Genzel, MPIfEP
Andrew Harris, U. Maryland
David Jewitt, U. Hawaii
Alexandre Karpov, Caltech
Charles Lada, Harvard/Smithsonian CfA
Karl Menten (co-chair), MPIfR
Harvey Moseley, NASA Goddard
David Neufeld, Johns Hopkins U.
Albrecht Poglitsch, MPIfEP
Jürgen Stutzki, U. Köln
Linda Tacconi, MPIfEP
Alexander Tielens, NASA Ames
Erick Young, U. Arizona
Jonas Zmuidzinas (co-chair), Caltech

Eric Becklin (ex-officio), USRA
Hashima Hasan (ex-officio), NASA HQ
Tom Roellig (ex-officio), NASA Ames

Local Organizing Committee:

Alexandre Karpov, Caltech (chair)