Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) Science Forum
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The 2017 TMT Science Forum: “TMT: Beyond First Light”
Mysore, India, 7-9 November 2017
https://conference.ipac.caltech.edu/tmtsf2017/
Registration deadline: 18 September 2017
The annual Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) Science Forum gathers members of the international astronomical community to meet, collaborate, and plan for future TMT science programs. It is the premier opportunity to learn about TMT, to discuss its capabilities, and to join in shaping the observatory’s future.
The theme for the 2017 Forum is "TMT: Beyond First Light". Plans for TMT's first-generation instrumentation and adaptive optics systems are quite mature, and the time is ripe to start planning new capabilities beyond first light. Conversations about this began at the 2016 TMT Forum in Kyoto, Japan, and the TMT International Observatory plans to launch feasibility studies for future-generation instruments later this year. The Forum in Mysore will be an important opportunity to foster discussion and to deepen collaboration among members of the international TMT community in instrumentation and operations planning for the observatory’s future beyond first light.
The Forum program will include overviews of the TMT project status; presentations about the big science questions to be answered with TMT’s next-generation instruments; discussion of novel technologies to enable these capabilities; and parallel sessions organized by the TMT International Science Development Teams (ISDTs) to discuss new instrument concepts and motivating science priorities.
On Monday, 6 November, before the Forum, there will be several satellite workshops focusing on particular capabilities and concepts, including high-contrast exoplanet imaging, high-resolution optical and infrared spectroscopy, and the Wide-Field Optical Spectrometer (a first-generation TMT instrument). Please see the 2017 Forum web page for more information about these workshops.
Mysore is a fascinating and attractive city with many famous palaces, situated about 150 km from Bangalore (site of the nearest international airport). The surrounding area features national parks, wildlife and bird sanctuaries, charming villages and temples, waterfalls, and many other attractions (see http://karnatakatourism.org/Mysore/en/). The Forum itself will be held on the Infosys Campus at Mysore, which is extensively equipped for technical meetings of this sort.
Registration for the TMT Forum is now open, with a deadline of 18 September 2017. The Forum website has information about meeting logistics, lodging, transportation, and visa requirements. Most foreign participants who are not Indian citizens will need visas, and the web site provides guidelines for visa application.