OUR PROJECT IS THE IMPROVED CHARACTERIZATION OF OVER 400 ECLIPSING BINARIES (EBS) IN THE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN HEMISPHERES USING TESS LIGHT CURVES. WE HAD ALREADY DISCOVERED THESE EBS USING LOW-QUALITY WASP PHOTOMETRY AND CONSTRAINED THEIR MASSES USING RADIAL VELOCITIES. WITH TESS WE CAN NOW PRECISELY MEASURE THE ECLIPSE DEPTHS AND HENCE CONSTRAIN THE RADII OF THE TWO STARS. THIS SAMPLE IS SPECIAL BECAUSE IT IS UNIQUELY COMPRISED OF F/G PRIMARIES AND M-DWARF SECONDARIES. IT IS THE CHARACTERIZATION OF THE M-DWARF THAT IS OF PARTICULAR INTEREST BOTH FOR CONSTRAINING STELLAR MODELS AND FOR THE PLETHORA OF EXOPLANET SEARCHES TARGETING M-DWARF HOSTS. DAVID MARTIN A POSTDOC AT OSU WILL LEAD THE RESEARCH EFFORT BY FITTING COMBINED MODELS TO THE EXISTING RADIAL VELOCITIES AND NEW TESS PHOTOMETRIC OBSERVATIONS. HE WILL ALSO COORDINATE ANY NEW OBSERVATIONS SUCH AS NEW RADIAL VELOCITIES OR FOLLOW-UP PHOTOMETRY TO COMPLEMENT TESS EITHER FROM THE GROUND OR IN SPACE USING THE CHEOPS SPACE TELESCOPE. MARTIN WILL CO-SUPERVISE A PHD STUDENT FOR WHOM THE NASA GRANT WILL PROVIDE THREE MONTHS OF FUNDING TO ASSIST WITH FITTING THE COMBINED TESS AND RADIAL VELOCITY DATA. SCOTT GAUDI WILL BE THE PRIMARY SUPERVISOR OF THE STUDENT AND WILL ALSO PROVIDE ASSISTANCE TO MARTIN AS HIS POSTDOCTORAL ADVISOR. GAUDI ALSO BRINGS A WEALTH OF EXPERIENCE TO THIS PROJECT AND HAS WRITTEN SEVERAL PAPERS ON ECLIPSING BINARY MODELLING AND IMPROVING CONSTRAINTS FOR M-DWARFS. THE INTERPRETATION OF THE NEW M-DWARF DATA (E.G. DERIVING AN UPDATED MASS-RADIUS RELATION) WILL BE LED BY MARTIN HIS PHD STUDENT AND SOME INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATORS INCLUDING AMAURY TRIAUD AND VEDAD HODZIC (WARWICK UK). THESE ECLIPSING BINARIES ARE ALSO PERFECT CANDIDATES AROUND WHICH TO FIND CIRCUMBINARY PLANETS AND THIS HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE ONCE SO FAR. DAVID WILL LEAD THIS EFFORT WITH HIS OHIO STATE UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT EVAN FITZMAURICE AS WELL AS HIS COLLABORATOR VESELIN KOSTOV (NASA GODDARD). DAVID V. MARTIN OCTOBER 28 2020