sPHENIX is a new detector at RHIC.

[David Morrison <morrison AT bnl.gov>]

Dear sPHENIX Collaborators,

This last day of 2016 is a great occasion to take stock of how far we've
come in the last year and take a peek at what we might expect in the
coming one.  Everyone in the Collaboration should be very proud of what
they helped accomplish over the last twelve months!

We started 2016 in fine form, coming as it did on the heels of the
adoption of the NSAC Long Range Plan in October 2015, the Director's
Cost and Schedule Review in November 2015, and the Collaboration meeting
at Rutgers in December 2015.

The pace didn't let up a bit as we got the scientific collaboration up
and running, elected and appointed the Executive Council, and held a
Collaboration meeting at BNL in May 2016.  At the same time, there was a
successful ramp of the superconducting solenoid in March 2016, the test
beam at FNAL in April 2016, an ongoing set of very productive R&D
activities involving all aspects of the detector, and the development of
increasingly sophisticated simulation capabilities.  The successful
tracker review in September 2016 was followed shortly after by learning
that DOE had granted sPHENIX CD-0 – a step that moved us from a
"proposed" experiment to "planned" one – a very big deal.  Here at the
end of the year, we've come full circle with a Collaboration meeting at
GSU in December 2016 at which we welcomed three new institutions to the
Collaboration.  It's been a very busy, very eventful year!

The coming year promises to race forward at an even faster pace.  So,
take a moment to reflect on the great progress that was made in 2016,
and take a deep breath to steel yourself for 2017!

Happy New Year,
Dave and Gunther

-- 
David Morrison  Brookhaven National Laboratory  phone: 631-344-5840
                Physics Department, Bldg 510 C    fax: 631-344-3253
                          Upton, NY 11973-5000  email: dave AT bnl.gov