Dr. Michael Belton is a science co-investigator in the Stardust-NExT project. His responsibilities include acquiring and analyzing Earth-based data from the NEXT observing campaign to ensure that inputs on the phase of the comet’s rotation and its spin rate are achieved to an accuracy that can deliver the spacecraft to encounter in time to image the Deep Impact crater at the highest resolution. Dr. Belton will participate in the analysis of the structure of the crater and any ejecta blanket that surrounds it. He will also survey the layer structure first seen in the Deep Impact images to determine any changes that may have occurred since the previous perihelion passage. He will extend these studies to the new territory covered by NEXT. He will analyze the layer structures in terms of their implications for the mode of formation of the nucleus and/or the current evolution of the surface. He will also participate in the analysis of approach photometry in order to provide a determination of the rotational longitude of the nucleus on approach and the spin state at encounter.