A Workshop on The Electron Ion Collider at BNL
		      February 28, March 1,2, 2002

An Electron Ion Collider (EIC) with a large range in the center of
mass energy for polarized electron-proton scattering, and electron-Ion
(heavy ion) scattering is proposed as a next generation experimental
facility for deep inelastic scattering (DIS) studies. With various
options for electron beam possible, a significant increase in the
luminosity over the present Colliders is envisioned. The possible physics
program with such a facility and some preliminary ideas on the accelerator
designs were presented to the US NSAC's Long Range Planning Review
meetings in late 2000 & early 2001.

In view of the enthusiastic support which the Electron Ion Collider (EIC)
has received at the NSAC Long Range Planning Exercise in the United States
and from the international hadronic physics community, we wish to
begin to organize the necessary effort to deliver the detailed proposal in
a timely fashion.  To this end, we plan to hold a meeting open to all
interested physicists to address the following issues:

- formation of a scientific collaboration

- development of the detailed scientific case for EIC

- consideration of the different accelerator options with the aim to
  focus on a single optimized design

- consideration of different detector options to address the planned
  physics measurements in the context of realistic accelerator parameters.

The meeting will build on the discussions at four previous meetings at
IUCF, BNL, Yale, and MIT and will take place at Brookhaven National
Laboratory on February 28 & March 1,2 2002. A major goal of this meeting
will be to initiate the extensive studies on various aspects of EIC
which will be essential for realization of the detailed proposal.
This is the first circular of the meeting. A second notice of the meeting
will be sent with an invitation to register.

We look forward to seeing you all at BNL in February/March.

Best regards,

Abhay Deshpande (For the EIC Steering Committee)
RIKEN BNL Research Center


EIC Steering Committee:
John Cameron (IUCF)
Larry Cardman (JLAB)
Gerry Garvey (LANL)
Roy Holt (ANL)
Peter Jacobs (LBL)
Richard Milner (MIT/Bates)
Peter Paul (BNL)