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EPRV Research Coordination Network

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Wavelengths: an EPRV RCN Networking Program

Overview

Wavelengths is a community-building initiative designed to foster informal, cross-disciplinary connections within the extreme precision radial velocity (EPRV) community. By facilitating small-group conversations across career stages, areas of expertise, and instrument teams, we aim to lower the barrier to meaningful professional relationships and shared scientific insight.

Goals

  • Promote low-effort, low-pressure, professional networking across the EPRV community.
  • Foster connections between early-career and more senior researchers.
  • Bridge gaps between subfields, such as instrumentation, data analysis, and theory.
  • Encourage cross-collaboration and awareness across international spectrograph teams.

Program Structure

  • Participants will be placed into small “pods” of 5–6 people, balanced across career stages, interests, and institutions.

  • Each pod will have one designated Pod Organizer (typically a mid-career or senior researcher) to facilitate meetings and help guide discussion.

  • Pods will meet every other month, either virtually or in person.

  • Each meeting will come with a suggested theme and optional discussion questions, provided by the RCN Steering Committee. Pods are encouraged but not required to follow these themes. Example themes includes: navigating job markets in different countries, sharing favorite tools or techniques, exciting new papers and what they mean for the field, etc

Time Commitment

The first round of Wavelengths will run for 1 year, starting in Summer 2025, and include six meetings for each pod.

  • Roughly 1 hour per meeting for all pod members

  • Additional 15–30 minutes per meeting for the pod organizer to handle coordination / logistics

  • Optional feedback surveys at the middle and end of the year

Pod Member Expectations

  • Foster a welcoming and respectful atmosphere.

  • Attend as many meetings as possible, but there is no requirement to attend every one

  • Participate in discussions by sharing your experiences/expertise with fellow pod members!

Pod Organizer Expectations

  • Schedule meetings and encourage participation (pod organizers are not expected to prepare presentations or carry the conversation).

  • Help connect pod members to the broader community when relevant. Organizers are encouraged to post in the #pod-organizers Slack channel to crowdsource advice.

Who Can Join

  • All members of the EPRV RCN are welcome, including observers, theorists, instrumentalists, and data scientists.

  • We especially welcome participation from early-career researchers (graduate students, postdocs) and international colleagues.

How to Sign Up

As a first step, we are looking for volunteers at the faculty or permanent staff career level to serve as Pod Organizers. If you are interested in serving as an organizer for a pod, please sign up using this Google Form by Tuesday, May 27th.

Once we have an estimate of how many Pod Organizers have volunteered, we will then open sign ups for Pod Members

Questions?

Reach out to us at : eprv-rcn.wavelengths-leads@jpl.nasa.gov with questions or to learn more about the program!