rubinann15010 — Announcement

Rubin Digest 04 December 2015

4 December 2015

Project News

The LSST Project Team congratulates Director Steve Kahn who has been elected as a 2015 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Minutes and presentations from the LSST Science Advisory Committee face-to-face meeting held in Tucson on November 16, 2015, have been posted. Topics discussed include the plans for deciding on the LSST cadence, whether the LSST camera focal plane might include two different types of sensors, and possible synergies between LSST, WFIRST, and Euclid.

A meeting was held with Department of Energy (DOE) representatives last week to discuss plans for the DOE contributions to LSST operations, along with plans for operational support of the LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC). The meeting was attended by LSST Director Steve Kahn, AURA President Matt Mountain, LSSTC Board Chair and SLAC Research Director David MacFarlane, SLAC Division Head for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology Tom Abel, LSST@SLAC Steering Committee Chair Steve Allen, DESC Spokesperson Rachel Bean, and DESC Deputy Spokesperson Jeff Newman.

AURA President Matt Mountain, LSST Director Steve Kahn, LSST Deputy Director Beth Willman, and NOAO Director David Silva will meet next week in Tucson to begin discussion of LSST Operations Concepts with the National Science Foundation.

Corporation News

The LSST Supernova Science Collaboration has disbanded; members are encouraged to apply to join the Dark Energy Science Collaboration (which has a working group focused on the use of Supernovae as a cosmological probe) or the Transients and Variable Stars Science Collaboration (for those interested in the zoo of supernova explosions; contact Federica Bianco).

LSSTC welcomes three new International Contributors - the UK Consortium, the University of Western Australia, and El Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). Agreements with these institutions and LSSTC enable participation of specified Principal Investigators (100 for the UK Consortium, 5 for the University of Western Australia, and 3 for the IAC) to have full rights to LSST data products before and during the ten-year survey.

Lucianne Walkowicz has replaced Michael Strauss as the LSSTC Science Collaborations Coordinator (LSSTCSCC). This position is the principal conduit for the multi-directional flow of information between the Science Collaborations, the LSST Project, and the LSST Corporation. Thank you Michael for your many years of outstanding service, and welcome Lucianne to this leadership role at the helm of the Science Collaborations.

Personnel Notes

Dan Puleo and Connor Miraval are recent additions to the Camera team, having joined the group working on the Science Rafts at BNL. Peter Melchior joins the group at Princeton working on the DM software stack, in particular as it relates to the production of annual data releases