The LSST Corporation, a non-profit consortium of around 30 research institutions, has received $7 million to establish a brand new fellowship around data from the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile. The fellowship is called the LSSTC Catalyst Fellowship, and it will support early-career researchers in both astrophysics and the social sciences as they study big data from the observatory.
The fellowship is also unique in that it will work to include researchers from traditionally underrepresented groups and institutions. Adding to the program’s uniqueness, it also will include structured mentoring by teams of astrophysicists and social scientists as well as leadership training for all fellows.
Professor Vicky Kalogera and Professor Adam Miller, of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, were involved in creating the fellowship.
“I am confident this prospect will be attractive to top fellows, who will be at the innovative core of an organically inclusive, equitable, and forward-moving working environment, leading a deeper, wider exploration of fundamental scientific questions and creating a new model for best practices and accountability across disciplines,” said Kalogera.
The Vera Rubin Observatory will create the first-ever deep, multicolor movie showing the southern sky as it changes over time. In doing so, it will generate dozens of terabytes of data per night, and processing all this data will present an extreme challenge. The fellowship, then, will serve as a transformative moment in the astronomy and astrophysics community, since hundreds of astronomers from multiple countries will be tackling enormous data sets together. The social science fellows, in turn, will get to study many of the social questions that will arise when large, multi-national groups of scientists work together to collect and analyze large amounts (and new forms) of data.
Administrators of the program also hope that the social scientists’ insights will lead to concrete recommendations that help improve the program’s collaborative infrastructure and culture, and address barriers to success, particularly for minorities and underserved populations.
“I am very excited to be involved in the development of such a unique, ground-breaking fellowship program and contributing to its design and launch,” Kalogera said. “By integrating social science into the core of the program, the fellows will help change the nature of scientific activity and collaboration and will benefit from strong mentorship and professional development opportunities.”
Read more about the fellowship in Northwestern Now.