Collaboration Organization
On this page you will find information about the organization of the Rubin Observatory LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC).
- Member Lists
- Management Team
- Working Groups, Topical Teams, and Task Forces
- Collaboration Council (CC)
- Other internal collaboration structures and roles
- Operations committees and personnel
- Liaisons
Member Lists
Management Team
The DESC Management Team, which comprises the Spokesperson, Deputy Spokesperson, the Coordinators, and Operations Manager, is responsible for managing the collaboration’s scientific activities to maximize the scientific return on the funding agencies’ investment in LSST, focusing on dark energy (the DESC’s core mission) and, more broadly, the fundamental physics of the Universe with LSST data. The Management Team is defined in the LSST DESC Governance Plan.
Inquiries of the DESC Spokesperson team (Spokesperson and Deputy Spokesperson) can be sent to: lsst-desc-spokesperson [at] slac.stanford.edu
.
- Spokesperson: Renée Hložek (University of Toronto)
- Deputy Spokesperson: Tesla Jeltema (University of California, Santa Cruz)
- Analysis Coordinator: Gautham Narayan (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
- Deputy Analysis Coordinator, static probes: Elisa Chisari (Utrecht University)
- Deputy Analysis Coordinator, transients: Rick Kessler (KICP)
- Computing and Simulations Coordinator: Nacho Sevilla (CIEMAT-Fisica de Particulas)
- Deputy Computing and Simulations Coordinator: Matt Becker (ANL)
- Technical Coordinator: Keith Bechtol (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
- Deputy Technical Coordinator: Anja von der Linden (Stony Brook)
- Operations Manager: Seth Digel (SLAC)
- Deputy Operations Managers: Eric Aubourg (APC/IN2P3), Heather Kelly (SLAC)
Spokesperson team emerita: Katrin Heitmann (ANL, serving as past Spokesperson until end of 2023), Renée Hložek (Toronto, deputy), Rachel Mandelbaum (CMU), Pat Burchat (Stanford, deputy), Phil Marshall (SLAC), Eric Gawiser (Rutgers, deputy), Rachel Bean (Cornell), Jeff Newman (Pitt, deputy), Bhuvnesh Jain (U. Pennsylvania), Steve Kahn (SLAC), Gregory Dubois-Felsmann (IPAC, deputy)
Working Groups, Topical Teams, and Task Forces
Working groups are the main organizational structure within DESC. The following diagram illustrates the overall working group structure, while the Coordinators and co-conveners for the working groups are listed below.
Technical Working Groups
Coordinator: Keith Bechtol (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
- Sensor Anomalies (SAWG): Merlin Fisher-Levine (Rubin Obs.), Claire Juramy (LPNHE/IN2P3)
- Photometric Corrections (PC): Sylvie Dagoret-Campagne (IJCLab/IN2P3), Douglas Tucker (FNAL)
- Blending (BL): James Buchanan (LLNL), Cyrille Doux (LPSC/IN2P3)
- Point-spread Function (PSF): Mike Jarvis (Penn), Tianqing Zhang (CMU)
Computing and Simulations Working Groups
Coordinator: Nacho Sevilla (CIEMAT-Fisica de Particulas)
- Cosmological and Survey Simulations (CSS): Andrew Hearin (ANL), Josh Meyers (LLNL)
- Computing (CO): Rob Knop (LBNL), Michael Wood-Vasey (Pittsburgh)
- Science Release and Validation: Javier Sanchez (FNAL), Nacho Sevilla (CIEMAT)
Analysis Working Groups
Coordinator: Gautham Narayan (UIUC)
- Weak Lensing (WL): Matthew Becker (ANL), Tilman Tröster (ETH Zurich)
- Large Scale Structure (LSS): Carlos Garcia-Garcia (University of Oxford), Boris Leistedt (Imperial College London/NYU)
- Time Domain (TD): Bruno Sanchez (Duke University), Mark Sullivan (University of Southampton)
- Clusters (CL): Celine Combet (LPSC/IN2P3), Yuanyuan Zhang (Texas A&M)
- Modeling and Combined Probes (MCP): Tassia Ferreira (LIneA), Danielle Leonard (Newcastle University)
- Photometric Redshifts (PZ): Sam Schmidt (University of California, Davis), Bryce Kalmbach (University of Washington)
- Observing Strategy (OS): Humna Awan (University of Michigan), Philippe Gris (LPC/IN2P3)
- External Synergies: David Alonso (University of Oxford), Jeff Newman (University of Pittsburgh)
- Dark Matter: Peter Ferguson (University of Wisconsin), Nora Shipp (MIT)
Topical Teams
Topical teams are informally-defined groups that capture focused activity beyond the scope of a single project, within or across DESC working groups. Teams that have been broadly advertised within DESC are listed here:
- Alerts team co-led by Alex Kim (LBNL), Robert Knop (LBNL)
- Bayesian Pipelines team co-led by François Lanusse (AIM/INSU), Michael Schneider (Livermore)
- Beyond wCDM team led by Georgios Valogiannis (Harvard)
- Blending Toolkit team co-led by Ismael Mendoza (Michigan), Thomas Sainrat (APC-Paris Diderot)
- Blind Analysis team led by Jonathan Blazek (Northeastern)
- Cluster Weak Lensing Mass Modeling team co-led by Michel Aguena (APC/IN2P3), Marina Ricci (APC/IN2P3)
- Core Cosmology Library (CCL) team led by David Alonso (Oxford)
- Difference imaging analysis (DIA) team co-led by Ben Racine (CPPM/IN2P3), Michael Wood-Vasey (Pittsburgh)
- Higher Order Statistics (HOS) team co-led by Joachim Harnois-Déraps (Newcastle), Jia Liu (Kavli IPMU)
- imSim team led by Chris Walter (Duke)
- Intrinsic Alignments team co-led by Christos Georgiou (Utrecht University), Leonel Medina Varela (UT Dallas)
- RAIL team co-led by Eric Charles (SLAC), Alex Malz (CMU)
- Strong Lensing team co-led by Nikki Arendse (Stockholm), Suhail Dhawan (Cambridge), Anowar Shajib (Chicago)
- Machine Learning for Transient Science team co-led by Alex Gagliano (Illinois), Benjamin Remy (LAPP/IN2P3)
- TJPCov team co-led by Felipe Andrade-Oliveira (Michigan), Matthew Kwiecien (UC Santa Cruz)
Task Forces
- Commissioning (COM): Chris Walter (Duke)
Collaboration Council (CC)
As defined in the Governance Plan, the Collaboration Council represents the Full Members of the Collaboration, facilitates discussion of collaboration-wide issues, and has overall responsibility for LSST DESC policies and procedures.
Council members are elected for 2-year terms, with ten new members elected each year. Their current year is given in parentheses after their institution. The CC elects its own two co-chairs, each year.
- co-Chair: Heather Kelly (SLAC, 2)
- co-Chair: Antonia Sierra Villarreal (SLAC, 2)
- Camille Avestruz (U. of Michigan, 1)
- Céline Combet (LPSC/IN2P3, 2)
- Andrew Connolly (U. of Washington, 2)
- Tassia Ferreira (Oxford, 1)
- Alex Gagliano (UIUC, 1)
- Lluis Galbany (ICE-CSIC Barcelona, 1)
- Mike Jarvis (Penn, 2)
- Rick Kessler (U. Chicago, 2)
- François Lanusse (AIM/INSU, 2)
- Anja von der Linden (Stony Brook, 2)
- Michelle Lochner (U. of the Western Cape, 1)
- Andrina Nicola (AIfA Bonn, 2)
- Julien Peloton (IJCLab/IN2P3, 1)
- Andrés A. Plazas Malagón (SLAC/KIPAC, 1)
- Judit Prat (U. Chicago, 1)
- Marina Ricci (APC/IN2P3, 1)
- Tianqing Zhang (CMU, 1)
- Yuanyuan Zhang (NOIRLab, 1)
Other internal collaboration structures and roles
Advisory Board
As defined in the Governance Plan, the members of the Advisory Board provide advice to and work with the management team to help define policy issues as they arise.
- Chair: Pierre Antilogus (LPNHE/IN2P3)
- Erminia Calabrese (Cardiff)
- Jim Chiang (SLAC)
- Josh Frieman (UChicago)
- Katrin Heitmann (ANL)
Membership Committee
As outlined in the Governance Plan, the Membership Committee implements the review of applications for new Members and Full Members, and for new Builders, as described in the Membership Policy and Builder Status Policy, respectively.
- Co-Chair: Mariana Penna-Lima (UnB - Brasília/LIneA)
- Co-Chair: Alexandre Boucaud (APC/IN2P3)
- Heather Kelly (SLAC)
- Annika Peter (Ohio State University)
- Daniel Perrefort (Pittsburgh)
- Mark Sullivan (Southampton)
- Luca Tortorelli (LMU-Munich)
- Tianqing Zhang (CMU)
Publication Board
As outlined in the Governance Plan, the Publication Board oversees the logistics of the publication process for all DESC publications as outlined in the Publication Policy.
- Publication Manager: Douglas Clowe (Ohio U.)
- Deputy Publication Manager: Alex Drlica-Wagner (Fermilab/Chicago)
- Mi Dai (Johns Hopkins University)
- Thibault Guillemin (LAPP/IN2P3)
- Ofer Lahav (UCL)
- Constance Mahony (German Centre for Cosmological Lensing)
- Alex Malz (CMU)
- Andrina Nicola (Bonn)
- Rogerio Rosenfeld (UNESP)
- Gautham Narayan (UIUC, ex-officio)
Speakers Bureau
As outlined in the Governance Plan, the Speakers Bureau is intended to be a resource to DESC members, adding value to presentations by Collaboration members and helping to improve the standing of the entire Collaboration. The specific roles and duties of the Speakers Bureau are defined in the Speakers Bureau Policy. The DESC Speakers Bureau welcomes requests from conference organizers for invited talks on behalf of the collaboration. More information how to request a speaker and details to provide in a request can be found here and the Speakers Bureau can be reached by email for any questions at lsst-desc-speakers-bureau@slac.stanford.edu.
- Co-Chair: Lluís Galbany (IEEC-CSIC Barcelona)
- Co-Chair: Tesla Jeltema (UC Santa Cruz)
- David Bacon (University of Portsmouth)
- Jonathan Blazek (Northeastern University)
- James Buchanan (LLNL)
- Tassia Ferreira (LIneA)
- Dominique Fouchez (CPPM)
- Bryce Kalmbach (University of Washington)
- Simona Murgia (UC Irvine)
- Marcelle Soares-Santos (University of Michigan)
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Committee
As described in the Governance Plan, the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Committee is charged by the Collaboration Council to proactively ensure that the collaboration is fostering an inclusive environment while promoting equity and diversity within the collaboration. The full charge, maintained by the Collaboration Council, can be found here.
- Co-Chair: Agnès Ferté (SLAC)
- Co-Chair: Matthew Wiesner (Benedictine)
- Jim Annis (Fermilab)
- Keith Bechtol (University Wisconsin-Madison)
- John Franklin Crenshaw (University of Washington)
- Eske Pedersen (Harvard University)
- Sreevarsha Sreejith (Brookhaven)
- Yuanyuan Zhang (Texas A&M)
Meetings Committee
The Meetings Committee is convened by the Spokesperson to organize collaboration meetings and hack/sprint weeks. In addition to the members listed below, the meetings committee also includes temporary members from organizing committees for recent and upcoming meetings, on a rotating basis.
- Co-Chair: Jonathan Blazek (Northeastern)
- Co-Chair: Andrew Hearin (ANL)
- François Lanusse (Hack/Sprint Co-Coordinator, AIM/INSU)
- Ismael Mendoza (Hack/Sprint Co-Coordinator, U of Michigan)
- Joanne Bogart (Remote Participation Coordinator, SLAC)
- Renée Hložek (ex officio, Toronto)
Mentoring Committee
The Mentoring Committee supports the mentoring of junior scientists in DESC, providing mentoring guidance and matching mentors and mentees.
- Co-Chair: Tesla Jeltema (UCSC)
- Co-Chair: Mustapha Ishak (UT Dallas)
- Ami Choi (NASA GSFC)
- Mariano Dominguez (IATE)
- Mandeep Gill (SLAC)
- Renée Hložek (Toronto)
- Akhtar Mahmood (Bellarmine)
- Daniel Perrefort (Pittsburgh)
- Muhammad Saleem (Bellarmine)
- Yuanyuan Zhang (Texas A&M)
- Conghao Zhou (UCSC)
Junior DESC Organization (JuDO)
JuDO works to represent and advance the interests of people in the DESC who have non-tenured, non-tenure-track, or equivalent non-permanent positions.
- Co-leads: Lucie Baumont (CEA), Claire-Alice Hébert (Stanford)
Ombudspersons
As defined in the LSST DESC Professional Conduct Policies, the role of the Ombudspersons is to provide informal, confidential, nonjudgmental, impartial, and independent advice and arrange mediation for DESC members for the purposes of dispute resolution.
- Cecile Roucelle (APC/IN2P3)
- Ian Dell’Antonio (Brown)
Operations committees and personnel
Operations Committee
As mentioned in the Governance Plan and defined in more detail in the Operations Management Plan, the LSST DESC Operations Committee is responsible for determining and prioritizing LSST DESC’s immediate and future operations needs, recommending ways to implement the prioritized operations needs, and assessing the progress and performance of funded operations activities. It is convened by, and reports to, the DESC Spokesperson.
- Operations Manager: Seth Digel (SLAC, Chair)
- IN2P3 representative: Céline Combet (LPSC/IN2P3)
- UK representative: David Alonso (Oxford)
- US university representatives: Mustapha Ishak (UT Dallas), Steve Ritz (U.C. Santa Cruz)
- US national lab representative: Alex Drlica-Wagner (Fermilab)
- Ex officio:
- Deputy Spokesperson: Tesla Jeltema
- Analysis Coordinator: Gautham Narayan
- Computing and Simulations Coordinator: Nacho Sevilla
- Technical Coordinator: Keith Bechtol
- Observing: Eric Aubourg, Renée Hložek, Heather Kelly
International Resources Committee
The purpose of DESC’s International Resources Committee (IRC) is to coordinate and formalize operations contributions from across DESC’s international partners.
- Chair: David MacFarlane (SLAC)
- DOE (US): Kathy Turner
- IN2P3 (France): Vincent Poireau
- STFC (UK): George Madden
Operations Staff
The DESC Pipeline Scientists (PS) and Computing Infrastructure personnel (CI) are committed to development of the collaboration’s mission-critical software and datasets.
- David Adams (BNL) - CI
- Michel Aguena (LAPP/IN2P3) - PS
- Felipe Andrade-Oliveira (Michigan) - PS
- Bob Armstrong (LLNL) - PS
- Matt Becker (ANL) - PS
- Joanne Bogart (SLAC) - CI
- James Buchanan (LLNL) - PS
- Elizabeth Buckley-Geer (FNAL) - PS
- Eric Charles (SLAC) - PS
- Jim Chiang (SLAC) - CI
- Ben Clifford (ANL) - CI
- Tom Glanzman (SLAC) - CI
- Philippe Gris (LPC/IN2P3) - PS
- Mike Jarvis (Penn) - PS
- Arun Kannawadi (Duke) - PS
- Heather Kelly (SLAC) - CI
- Rick Kessler (U. Chicago) - PS
- Robert Knop (LBNL) - PS
- Patricia Larsen (ANL) - CI
- Huan Lin (FNAL) - PS
- Josh Meyers (LLNL) - PS
- Marc Paterno (FNAL) - PS
- James Perry (Edinburgh) - CI
- Eli Rykoff (SLAC) - PS
- Javier Sanchez (STScI) - PS
- Sam Schmidt (UC Davis) - PS
- Nacho Sevilla (CIEMAT) - CI
- Erin Sheldon (BNL) - PS
- Sandro Dias Pinto Vitenti (UEL-LIneA) - PS
- Joe Zuntz (Edinburgh) - PS
Liaisons
A set of active DESC members and external project leaders have agreed to serve as liaisons for DESC with key resources and precursor and concurrent surveys.
Rubin Observatory Project and Facility Operations
- Director: Zeljko Ivezic (UW/Rubin Obs.)
- Chief Scientist: Tony Tyson (U.C. Davis)
- Data Management: Leanne Guy (Rubin Obs.), Robert Lupton (Princeton), Wil O’Mullane (Rubin Obs.)
- Observing Strategy: Lynne Jones (U Washington)
- Systems Integration and Commissioning: Chuck Claver (Rubin Obs.), Sandrine Thomas (Rubin Obs.)
- Education & Public Outreach: Lauren Corlies (Rubin Obs.)
- Facility Operations: Phil Marshall (SLAC/Rubin Obs.)
- Survey Cadence Optimization Committee: Saurabh Jha (Rutgers), Rachel Mandelbaum (CMU), Steven Smartt (Oxford) (liaisons appointed by SCOC leadership)
High-performance computing resources
- ANL: Salman Habib (ANL)
- IN2P3: Dominique Boutigny (LAPP/IN2P3)
- NERSC: Debbie Bard (LBNL)
- UK computing: George Beckett (Edinburgh)
Other projects
- CMB-S4: David Alonso (Oxford)
- DESI: Jeff Newman (Pittsburgh)
- Euclid: Jason Rhodes (JPL)
- HSC: Michael Strauss (Princeton)
- PFS: Michael Strauss (Princeton)
- Roman: Julie McEnery (Goddard Space Flight Center)
- Simons Observatory: David Alonso (Oxford)
- 4MOST/TiDES: Mark Sullivan (Southampton)