Nope, first I heard of it
But from the article you quoted:
Howell and Thomas Harrison of New Mexico State University made high-precision infrared measurements of EF Eridanus using the Gemini North and Keck II telescopes, both on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, in December 2002 and September 2003, respectively.
Keck also has a press release on this at:
http://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/news/science/mystery/index.html