<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div class=""><div class="" style="font-family: Optima-Regular;">Dear Colleagues,</div><div class="" style="font-family: Optima-Regular;"><div class=""><p class="MsoNormal">In the 2015 long range planning (LRP) activity of the US Nuclear Science Community the joint Town Meetings on QCD unanimously and enthusiastically endorsed the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) as the highest priority for new facility construction in the US. The view of the broader US nuclear science community, to be expressed in the NSAC Long Range Plan, will be released in October of this year. We hence think it is timely for the US and the international users of a future US-based EIC to organize more formally with the goal of giving the future users community a stronger and more visible role in the process leading to the creation of an EIC.</p><p class="MsoNormal">We are writing to invite you and colleagues at your Institution to join in the international Electron-Ion Collider Users Group (EICUG) with the aim of realizing the EIC in the United States. Currently there are two designs of the US EIC under consideration, one at Brookhaven National Laboratory based on RHIC and the other at Jefferson Laboratory based on the 12-GeV CEBAF facility. The EICUG will work together, across these efforts, to <o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span class="" style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span>enhance and refine the science case beyond the one that has been presented in the EIC White Paper (<a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1212.1701" class="">http://arxiv.org/abs/1212.1701</a>),<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span class="" style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span>help define and coordinate the research equipment including the necessary detector technologies & designs required to achieve the scientific goals of the EIC,<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span class="" style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span>effectively engage with other stakeholders (e.g. funding agencies, laboratories) to make EIC and its science a realit</p><p class="MsoNormal">We request all users group members to designate a representative from their home institution to be a member of the EICUG’s Steering Committee (SC). The primary role of the Steering Committee is to promote the construction of an Electron-Ion Collider through world-wide collaboration with particular attention to outreach, science, technology, and organization of the EICUG. This SC will in particular<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span class="" style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span>establish a charter for the EICUG, <o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span class="" style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span>develop a transparent process by which an organizational structure and a representative leadership will be put in place,<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span class="" style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span>provide a forum for exchange of information amongst the potential EIC users on scientific and organizational matters leading eventually to one or more EIC Collaborations that will carry out experimental research at the EIC, and<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span class="" style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span class="" style="font-size: 7pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span>organize and monitor worldwide outreach activities on scientific and technological matters for the EIC in collaboration with the EIC’s representative leadership. </p><p class="MsoNormal">We hope to have the Steering Committee established and functional by the end of 2015. We anticipate the first phone meeting of the SC in December, with as one of the first tasks to give further input to the EIC User Group meetings in 2016.</p><p class="MsoNormal">We hope your institution will participate in this endeavor, and look forward to an early, positive response from you on being part of the EICUG and a name and email address of a person who will represent your institution on the Steering Committee. Please indicate your willingness to join the EIC Users Group by a response to this email (or subject line: “EIC Users Group” (to <a href="mailto:abhay.deshpande@stonybrook.edu" class="">abhay.deshpande@stonybrook.edu</a> or any one of us) with the names of the members of your institution that wish to join the EIC Users Group and the name of your institution’s Steering Committee representative. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Please forward this message to your friends and colleagues who you think might be interested in the EIC but have not participated in the EIC meetings or activities so far.</p><p class="MsoNormal">With best regards,<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Abhay Deshpande (<a href="mailto:abhay.deshpande@stonybrook.edu" class="">abhay.deshpande@stonybrook.edu</a>),<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Rolf Ent (<a href="mailto:ent@jlab.org" class="">ent@jlab.org</a>), <o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Richard Milner (<a href="mailto:milner@mit.edu" class="">milner@mit.edu</a>),<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Thomas Ullrich (<a href="mailto:thomas.ullrich@bnl.gov" class="">thomas.ullrich@bnl.gov</a>)<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Cc: Robert McKeown (JLab) & Berndt Mueller (BNL)</p></div><div apple-content-edited="true" class=""><div class="" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;">----------------------------------------------------------------<br class="">Abhay Deshpande<br class="">Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy<br class="">Stony Brook University (SUNY)<br class="">Phone: +1 (631) 632-8109<br class="">Email: <a href="mailto:abhay.deshpande@stonybrook.edu" class="">abhay.deshpande@stonybrook.edu</a><br class=""><div class="">*********************************************************************************************************************</div></div></div></div><div class=""><div apple-content-edited="true" class=""><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><br class=""><br class=""></div></div>
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