NSF Reviewer 2014
Revision as of 01:17, 9 February 2014 by Foretony (talk | contribs) (→To what extent do the proposed activities suggest and explore creative, original, or potentially transformative concepts?)
What is the potential for the proposed activity to
advance knowledge and understanding within its own field or across different fields (Intellectual Merit); and
benefit society or advance desired societal outcomes (Broader Impacts)?
This is the weakest part of the proposal. The authors describe impacts which a narrowly focused on their specific subfield within nuclear physics. Either they do not take this requirement seriously or they are unable to find impacts that go beyond their sub-discipline.
To what extent do the proposed activities suggest and explore creative, original, or potentially transformative concepts?
The main thrust of the proposal is a measurement of the d/u quark distribution ration. The authors did not compare the expected precision of their measurements to many available fits/predictions at large x. The lack of this comparison left the question of the impact of their work un-answered.