Members of the working press are most welcome to attend a meeting on the
Beyond Einstein Program, at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, May
12-14, 2004, free of registration fees. The meeting, sponsored by NASA, the
Department of Energy, and the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and
Cosmology at Stanford University, will focus on NASA’s Beyond Einstein
Program. This program is directed at fundamental investigations of the Big
Bang, Dark Energy and Matter and Black Holes. It is the next phase in the
NASA’s “Structure and Evolution of the Universe” theme which is responsible
for the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, Chandra X-ray Observatory, the
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer and
missions awaiting launch such as Gravity Probe B, the Swift Gamma Ray Burst
Explorer and the Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope.

The current status of the Beyond Einstein science program will be discussed
Wednesday May 12 in the light of current plans that postpone the launch
dates of two Einstein Observatories, called Constellation-X and LISA, defer
concept studies for the proposed “Einstein Probes” and reduce the rate at
which NASA will develop Explorer-class satellites. Meeting sessions on
Wednesday May 12 will focus on recent results and future studies of the Big
Bang; Thursday May 13 will concentrate on the mysteries of and plans to
decipher dark matter and dark energy; and Friday May 14 will feature
scientific studies and new missions designed to study black holes as well
as a public lecture by Kip Thorne (Caltech).

The meeting will include both invited reviews and contributed papers.
Featured speakers include Paul Hertz (NASA Senior Scientist for Astronomy
and Physics), Charles Bennett (NASA/GSFC PI of the WMAP mission), Joseph
Lykken (Fermi Lab), Wendy Freedman (Carnegie Institutes), Saul Perlmutter
(LBNL), and Kip Thorne (Caltech). Although no formal media activities are
currently planned, interviews with these and other attendees can be
scheduled by request.

For more information on the conference program please visit the web site:

http://www-conf.slac.stanford.edu/einstein/default.htm

You can also register at the above web site, or by sending mail to Lynn
Cominsky. To schedule interviews with any of the conference participants,
please contact either Lynn Cominsky or Neil Calder.