NICI Campaign Science Team Selected

The Gemini Director, with input from the ITAC and a panel of independent experts, has chosen an international team led by Dr. Michael Liu of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii to conduct a major campaign to directly image planets around nearby stars using NICI. The team includes members of the instrument team building NICI and a number of other collaborators from across the Gemini partnership. The NICI Campaign is planned to begin in 2006 and will be carried out over the next two to three years using 50 nights of observing time. With strong observational, technical, and theoretical expertise, Gemini expects that the NICI Campaign will significantly advance our understanding of the properties and frequencies of extrasolar planets using this exciting new instrument.

The NICI Campaign team includes Michael Liu, Mark Chun, Christ Ftaclas (University of Hawaii), Laird Close, Adam Burrows (University of Arizona), Doug Toomey (Mauna Kea Infrared), Neill Reid (STScI), Niranjan Thatte, Matthias Tecza, Fraser Clarke (Oxford), Harvey Richer (U. British Columbia), Jane Gregorio Hetem, Elisabete De Gouveia Dal Pino, Sylvia Alencar (U. Sao Paolo), Pawel Artymowicz (Toronto), Doug Lin (UC Santa Cruz), Shigeru Ida (Tokyo Institute of Technology), Alan Boss (DTM/Carnegie), and Mark Kuchner (NASA Goddard).

Last update: 4 January 2006, Phil Puxley