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 and Topical Teams
- 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: Rachel Mandelbaum (CMU)
- Deputy Spokesperson: Pat Burchat (Stanford)
- Analysis Coordinator: Anze Slosar (BNL)
- Deputy Analysis Coordinator: Renée Hlozek (Toronto)
- Computing and Simulations Coordinator: Katrin Heitmann (ANL)
- Deputy Computing and Simulations Coordinator: Jim Chiang (SLAC)
- Data Coordinator: Michael Wood-Vasey (University of Pittsburgh)
- Technical Coordinator: Pierre Antilogus (LPNHE/IN2P3)
- Operations Manager: Richard Dubois (SLAC)
- Deputy Operations Manager: Seth Digel (SLAC)
Spokesperson team emerita: 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 and Topical Teams
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: Pierre Antilogus (LPNHE/IN2P3)
- Sensor Anomalies (SAWG): Pierre Astier (LPNHE/IN2P3), Andrei Nomerotski (BNL)
- Photometric Corrections (PC): Sébastien Bongard (LPNHE/IN2P3), David Rubin (UHawaii)
- Blending (BL): Rémy Joseph (Princeton), Matt Becker (ANL)
- Observing Strategy (OS): Dan Scolnic (Duke), Michelle Lochner (AIMS)
- Point-spread Function (PSF): Josh Meyers (LLNL), Pierre-François Léget (LPNHE/IN2P3)
Computing and Simulations Working Groups
Coordinator: Katrin Heitmann (ANL)
- Cosmological and Survey Simulations (CSS; experimental merged group): Bryce Kalmbach (UW), Simon Krughoff (UW)
- Computing (CO): Johann Cohen-Tanugi (IN2P3 LUPM), Heather Kelly (SLAC)
Data and Validation Working Groups
Coordinator: Michael Wood-Vasey (Pitt)
- Commissioning (COM): Chris Walter (Duke)
Analysis Working Groups
Coordinator: Anze Slosar (BNL)
- Weak Lensing (WL): Bob Armstrong (LLNL), François Lanusse (CNRS)
- Large Scale Structure (LSS): David Alonso (Oxford), Andrina Nicola (Princeton)
- Supernovae (SN): Gautham Narayan (UIUC), Philippe Gris (LPC Clermont-Ferrand)
- Clusters (CL): Yuanyuan Zhang (Fermilab), Camille Avestruz (U of Michigan)
- Strong Lensing (SL): Brenda Frye (U. Arizona), Yashar Hezaveh (Montreal)
- Theory and Joint Probes (TJP): Elisa Chisari (Utrecht), Mustapha Ishak (UT Dallas)
- Photometric Redshifts (PZ): Alex Malz (GCCL@RUB), Shahab Joudaki (Oxford)
- External Synergies: Mark Sullivan (Southampton), Jeff Newman (Pittsburgh)
- Dark Matter: Keith Bechtol (Wisconsin), Alex Drlica-Wagner (Fermilab), Yao-Yuan Mao (Rutgers)
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:
- Beyond wCDM topical team led by Georgios Valogiannis (February 2020 onwards); previously led by Mustapha Ishak
- Core Cosmology Library (CCL) topical team led by Danielle Leonard (January 2020 onwards); previously co-led by David Alonso, Elisa Chisari, and Elisabeth Krause
- Difference imaging analysis (DIA) topical team co-led by Bruno Sanchez, Michael Wood-Vasey
- TJPCov topical team led by Sukhdeep Singh
- Data Access topical team led by Joanne Bogart, Yao-Yuan Mao
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 chair, each year.
- Chair: François Lanusse (CNRS, 2)
- Deputy Chair: Yao-Yuan Mao (Rutgers, 2)
- Catarina Alves (UCL, 1)
- Eric Aubourg (APC, 1)
- Camille Avestruz (U of Michigan, 1)
- Humna Awan (U of Michigan, 2)
- Keith Bechtol (Wisconsin, 1)
- Jonathan Blazek (EPFL, 1)
- Dominique Boutigny (LAPP/IN2P3, 2)
- Chihway Chang (Chicago, 2)
- Melissa Graham (U Washington, 1)
- Emille Ishida (LPC, 1)
- Heather Kelly (SLAC, 2)
- Pierre-François Léget (LPNHE/IN2P3, 2)
- Danielle Leonard (Newcastle, 2)
- Jeff Newman (Pittsburgh, 2)
- Tina Peters (Toronto, 2)
- Marina Ricci (LAPP, 1)
- Aaron Roodman (SLAC, 1)
- Javier Sanchez (FNAL, 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.
- Gary Bernstein (UPenn)
- Emmanuel Gangler (LPC/IN2P3)
- Phil Marshall (SLAC)
- Hiranya Peiris (UCL)
- Jason Rhodes (JPL)
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.
- Chair: Matthew Wiesner (Benedictine)
- David Alonso (Oxford)
- Céline Combet (LPSC)
- Mustapha Ishak (UT Dallas)
- Emille Ishida (CNRS)
- James Jee (Yonsei / UC Davis)
- Mariana Penna-Lima (Brasília)
- Andrés Plazas (Princeton/Rubin Obs.)
- Antonio Villarreal (ANL)
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: Seth Digel (SLAC)
- Douglas Clowe (Ohio U.)
- Lluís Galbany (Pittsburgh)
- Eve Kovacs (ANL)
- Patricia Larsen (ANL)
- Danielle Leonard (Newcastle)
- Eric Nuss (LUPM)
- Sam Schmidt (UC Davis)
- Christian Setzer (Stockholm)
- Anze Slosar (BNL, ex-officio)
Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Committee
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. Full charge can be found on Confluence (internal site).
- Co-Chair: Katrin Heitmann (ANL)
- Co-Chair: Scott Dodelson (CMU)
- Humna Awan (U of Michigan)
- Rachel Bean (Cornell)
- Mustapha Ishak (UT Dallas)
- Boris Leistedt (Imperial College London / NYU)
- Marina Ricci (LAPP/IN2P3)
Meetings Committee
The Meetings Committee is convened by the Spokesperson to organize collaboration meetings and hack/sprint weeks.
- Chair: Andrés Plazas (Princeton/Rubin Obs.)
- Humna Awan (Hack/Sprint Coordinator and Meetings Accessibility Ad Hoc Committee co-chair, U of Michigan)
- Tom Glanzman (Remote Participation Coordinator and Meetings Accessibility Ad Hoc Committee co-chair, SLAC)
- Sukhdeep Singh (JuDO Representative, CMU)
- Rachel Mandelbaum (ex officio, CMU)
- Temporary LOC/SOC representatives from most recent meeting: Pat Burchat (Stanford), Katrin Heitmann (ANL)
- Temporary LOC/SOC representatives from upcoming meeting: Nacho Sevilla (CIEMAT), Renée Hložek (Toronto)
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: Eske Pedersen (UT Dallas), Kartheik Iyer (Toronto)
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.
- Jo Dunkley (Princeton)
- Saurabh Jha (Rutgers)
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: Richard Dubois (SLAC, Chair)
- UK representative: Benjamin Joachimi (UCL)
- France representative: Emmanuel Gangler (LPC)
- US university representatives: Andy Connolly (UW), Eric Gawiser (Rutgers), Tim Eifler (Arizona)
- US national lab representative: Alex Drlica-Wagner (Fermilab)
- Ex officio:
- Deputy Spokesperson: Pat Burchat
- Analysis Coordinator: Anze Slosar
- Computing and Simulations Coordinator: Katrin Heitmann
- Data Coordinator: Michael Wood-Vasey
- Technical Coordinator: Pierre Antilogus
- Observing: Seth Digel, Rachel Mandelbaum
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): Berrie Giebels
- STFC (UK): Chris Woolford
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.
- Bob Armstrong (LLNL) - PS
- Matt Becker (ANL) - PS
- Joanne Bogart (SLAC) - CI
- Eric Charles (SLAC) - PS
- Jim Chiang (SLAC) - CI, PS
- Ben Clifford (ANL) - CI
- Tom Glanzman (SLAC) - CI
- Philippe Gris (LPC Clermont-Ferrand) - PS
- Mike Jarvis (Penn) - PS
- Arun Kannawadi (Princeton) - PS
- Heather Kelly (SLAC) - CI
- Rick Kessler (U. Chicago) - PS
- Josh Meyers (LLNL) - PS
- Vivian Miranda (U. Arizona) - PS
- Marc Paterno (FNAL) - PS
- James Perry (Edinburgh) - CI
- Kara Ponder (SLAC) - PS
- Eli Rykoff (SLAC) - PS
- Javier Sanchez (FNAL) - PS
- Sam Schmidt (UC Davis) - PS
- Nacho Sevilla (CIEMAT) - CI
- Erin Sheldon (BNL) - PS
- Brian Van Klaveren (SLAC) - CI
- 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: Steven Kahn (SLAC/Stanford/Rubin Obs.)
- Chief Scientist: Tony Tyson (U.C. Davis)
- Camera: Steve Ritz (U.C. Santa Cruz)
- Data Management: Leanne Guy (Rubin Obs.), Robert Lupton (Princeton), Wil O’Mullane (Rubin Obs.)
- Data Management @ NCSA: Michelle Gower (NCSA)
- Observing Strategy: Zeljko Ivezic (UW)
- Simulations: Andy Connolly (UW)
- Systems Integration and Commissioning: Chuck Claver (Rubin Obs.), Sandrine Thomas (Rubin Obs.)
- Telescope & Site team: Sandrine Thomas (Rubin Obs.)
- Education & Public Outreach: Lauren Corlies (Rubin Obs.)
- Facility Operations: Phil Marshall (SLAC/Rubin Obs.)
High-performance computing resources
- ANL: Salman Habib (ANL)
- IN2P3: Dominique Boutigny (LAPP/IN2P3)
- NERSC: Debbie Bard (LBNL)
- UK computing: George Beckett (Edinburgh)
Other projects
- DES: Jim Annis (Fermilab)
- DESI: Jeff Newman (Pittsburgh)
- Euclid: Jason Rhodes (JPL)
- HSC: Michael Strauss (Princeton)
- PFS: Michael Strauss (Princeton)
- Simons Observatory: David Alonso (Oxford)
- WFIRST: Jason Rhodes (JPL)
- 4MOST/TiDES: Mark Sullivan (Southampton)