July 28, 2014

Dear STAR Collaborator,

Each year we have upgrade workshop to present the status of existing detector upgrades, discuss plans on near-term upgrades, and lay out a strategy toward long-term upgrade projects.

This year, we have just completed two very successful upgrades with an equally successful run14. We  are looking forward to realizing our near-term our goals and upgrade plans in the next two years, and planning on an exciting BES II.

In-between the DNP town meeting to be hold at Temple University in September, and NSAC LRP committee resolutions in March 2015, we propose to hold a two-day STAR upgrade workshop in October 2-3, 2014.

This annual workshop will have an additional mission of taking the feedback from town meeting discussions, and sharpening our future plan before document submission to LRP committee.

In this meeting, we will review the progress on upgrades necessary for run15: FMS, FMS Pre-shower and Roman Pot Phase II*. We will have to converge on a definite configuration and realistic schedule for run16. Updated proposals for iTPC and Event Plane Detector for BES II will be discussed with cost and schedule.

In preparation for Long Range Plan, a team and plan for a pre-proposal for forward upgrades for 2020 and beyond will be presented at the meeting and strive to have consensus on the detector configuration, and a work plan on cost and schedule.

For the workshop to be productive and successful the work on sharpening and having broad agreement on the physics goals will start well before the meeting.

Your participation and inspiration are crucial for STAR’s future and we are looking forward to your participation.

Flemming & Zhangbu

PS. Zhenyu Ye has setup a webpage for the meeting at UIC with information. This link will also be added to the STAR home page.  The information is available on http://tigger.uic.edu/~yezhenyu/STAR-upgrade-workshop2014/

There will registration fee of $50. A block of room has been reserved at the Chicago Crown Plaza hotel which is within walking distance of UIC.