The Ohio State University College of Mathematical & Physical Sciences Department of Astronomy

Attendees: Darren DePoy, Paul Byard, Pat Osmer, Mark Derwent, Dan Papallardo, Jen Marshall, Bruce Atwood, David Weinberg, and Rick Pogge.

This meeting was devoted to a discussion of the referee's report for our unsuccessful TSIP proposal.

To summarize, we applied to the NSF Telescope System and Instrumentation Program (TSIP) for money to complete MODS2 and purchase both new rulings for medium-resolution blue gratings and replica medium-resolution red gratings for both MODS1 and MODS2. The amount of our request was US$2.9M, including considerable matching funds (even though that was not required by the TSIP AO). The proposal was a resubmission of a proposal that was submitted for the previous round, and though very highly regarded by the first-round panel, a grant was not awarded because LBT was at that time too far away from first light. We were strongly encouraged by the first-round review panel to resubmit for the following year's competition.

For the new round, we followed the suggestions of the first-round panel and provided an improved description of the MODS multi-object modes, updated the science case, updated the budget and schedule, and emphasized the considerable progress being made on LBT construction on Mt. Graham.

The second-round panel turned us down, returning what in our opinion was an astonishingly negative and contradictory report, especially when viewed against the comments from the first-round panel for what was essentially the same (if updated) proposal. Some of the comments were sufficiently out of line with the letter of the Announcement of Opportunity for this program that we are holding discussions with Todd Boroson (who is overseeing the TSIP program for NSF) and NSF proper to understand what the issues are, and to try to find ways to move forward with getting funding to complete MODS2.