- This event has passed.
First Annual Catalyst Symposium
October 23, 2023 – October 25, 2023
Symposium Goals
The goals of the first annual Catalyst Symposium are:
- To give the astrophysics community the opportunity to learn about and potentially participate in the research and other activities being undertaken by Catalyst Fellows in astrophysics and the social sciences
- To strengthen networks and communication among the direct participants in the Catalyst Fellowship and the broader Rubin LSST community
- To advance the training, mentoring, and community-impact goals of the Catalyst Fellowship project.
What is the Catalyst Fellowship?
The LSST Discovery Alliance (LSST-DA) Catalyst Fellowship, funded by the John Templeton Foundation, is an innovative research fellowship that brings astronomers and social scientists together in a convergent, multi-disciplinary cohort of postdocs engaging with teams of mentors and other collaborators in the growing Rubin Observatory LSST science community. It invests in early-career astrophysicists who are well-positioned to work with Big Data from Rubin LSST and to make exciting discoveries in the first years of LSST operations. It also supports early-career and senior social scientists conducting research on the practice of astrophysics in the era of Big Data.
In addition to improving the practice of science, the Catalyst Fellowship strives to engage and train a diverse new generation of Fellows who will become experts in LSST’s capabilities–to help them do great LSST research, develop their leadership skills, and serve as community resources for years to come.
Key Details
Date and location
October 23-25, 2023 at the University of Arizona, Tucson.
Target attendees
Direct participants in the Catalyst Fellowship—astrophysics and social science Fellows; their local advisors and mentoring committees; and the Catalyst Steering Committee—as well as representatives from other LINCC programs, including LINCC Frameworks, and Rubin Observatory. We also welcome interested faculty, students, and researchers from LSST-DA member institutions and interested members of the broader Rubin LSST research community to attend plenary sessions.
Agenda and meeting structure
View the agenda below. The symposium will consist of plenary sessions open to all virtual and in-person attendees. It will also have smaller break-out sessions primarily for in-person attendees directly connected to the Catalyst Fellowship. The plenaries will include research talks by the Fellows and members of the Catalyst Senior Social Science Team, with a few short overview talks about Rubin Observatory, LINCC Frameworks, and social-science research to astronomy. Breakout sessions will focus on Catalyst mentoring, the first cross-disciplinary publications from the Catalyst team, and meetings of the senior social team, Catalyst Steering Committee, and Fellows. Wednesday morning will be reserved for professional development for Fellows.
Travel to Tucson
We have reserved blocks of rooms at several local hotels. A limited amount of travel support is available (please indicate your need for such support on the registration form).
Conference dinner
Monday, October 23, afternoon – early evening, at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson. Please express interest in the conference dinner on your registration form. It will be awesome, but space is limited.
Childcare
LSST-DA may be able to offer childcare grants to some participants. Please indicate your interest in exploring childcare funding options with LSST-DA on your registration form.
Registration
The deadline for priority registration is September 15, 2023. There is no registration fee for Catalyst Symposia.
Agenda
Date | Topic/Speaker |
|---|---|
10/23 | Plenary 1 – Welcome and Introductions (K. Johnston) – Intro to the LSST-DA Catalyst Fellowship (Jeno Sokoloski) – Rubin status update (Erik Dennihy) – Intro to LINCC Frameworks (Andy Connolly) – Intro to the Role of Social Science in the Catalyst (Anissa Tanweer) |
10/23 | Plenary 2 – Fellow Talks (Chair, Charlotte Olsen) – Bringing Supernova Light-Curve Modeling into the Era of Wide-Field Surveys (Azalee Bostroem) – Building a unified model of the Milky Way using astrostatistics (Aarya Patil) – Cross-Institutional Collaborations in Astronomy and Astrophysics (Tim Sacco) – Finding Your Friendly Neighborhood Filaments with Low Mass Galaxy Star Formation Histories in LSST (Charlotte Olsen) – Emulation and Assessment of gradient-based samplers in Cosmology (Arrykrishna Mootoovaloo) |
10/23 | Breakout 1 – Catalyst Fellows Meeting – Catalyst Steering Committee – Working Time – Expansion site mentors and local advisors (Moderator Matt Wiesner) |
10/24 | Breakout 2 – Cohort-1 Fellows with their own mentoring committees – Cohort-2 Fellows (Moderator Charlotte Olsen) – Catalyst Steering Committee – Assessment and Logistics |
10/24 | Plenary Session 3 – Interactive activity with the Catalyst senior social science team (Co-chairs Jarita Holbrook, Anissa Tanweer, and Lois Trautvetter) |
10/24 | Plenary Session 4 – Fellow Talks (Chair Andy Connolly) – Automatic Generation of Magnification Maps for Lensed Quasars Using Deep Learning (Somayeh Khakpash) – Investigating Galaxy Morphology in Large Surveys Using Novel Machine Learning Frameworks (Aritra Ghosh) – Noisy Debris: Legal and Social Interventions for LSST Noise and Interference Mitigation (Tiffany Nichols) – Detecting and studying light echoes in the era of Rubin and Artificial Intelligence (Xiaolong Li) |
10/24 | Plenary Session 5 – Fellow Talks – From LSST light curves to transiting worlds (Tansu Daylan) – Investigating AGN Selection Bias in LSST (Chris Carroll) – Discerning the Dynamical History of Comets using Brightness Behavior (Carrie Holt) – Studying the fingerprints of heavy elements in cosmic explosions with Rubin (Shreya Anand) |
10/24 | Breakout 3 – Senior Social Science Team Meeting – Mentoring workshop/discussion for advisors/mentors (Moderator Federica Bianco) – Fellows, LINCC Frameworks personnel, and incubator participants (Moderator Azalee Boestroem) |
10/24 | Plenary 6 – Closing |
10/25 | Fellows-only Breakout – Professional Development – Catalyst Fellowship Logistics and Reporting |
LSST Discovery Alliance gratefully acknowledges the John Templeton Foundation for its support of the Catalyst Fellowship.
