The increasing number of telescopes in current interferometers and the dedication of new facility arrays mark the beginning of a new era in high-resolution astronomy with vastly increased sensitivity and new leaps in spatial resolution.

However, taking full advantage of these new facilities will require development of common data reduction and analysis tools as well as training a new generation of astronomers in the challenging, but rewarding, aspects of optical interferometric research.

Since there is no organised effort to explicitly develop software useful for all European and U.S. interferometers, this proposal would play a unique and valuable role in international Astronomy by supporting the only university-based effort to develop "cross-platform" interferometry software as a community resource, the OI-LIBRARY.

During the outgoing phase, the applicant will benefit from the expertise of Prof. John Monnier (University of Michigan) at first, the development of low-level data reduction routines, and then, in t he implementation of image reconstruction software as part of the OI-LIBRARY.

The OI-LIBRARY will be based on the IAU-sponsored exchange data format OI-DATA and would be usable for any interferometric array. The skills gained during this first phase will be immediately applicable at the return host institution.

The applicant will work on the off-line software for the MROI (Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer) interferometer. Moreover, any of this development would be fully available when the imaging m ode of the European Southern Observatory VLTI becomes operational.