ann21029 — Announcement
Fellowship Funded by the John Templeton Foundation to Address Big Data
First cross-disciplinary fellowship program to tackle data from massive Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) at Vera C. Rubin Observatory
25 August 2021
Just as an enormous influx of big data is poised to transform the field of astronomy and astrophysics, a new fellowship program is poised to take advantage of the opportunity. The LSST Corporation (LSSTC), a non-profit consortium of approximately 30 research institutions, has received $7 million to establish the LSSTC Catalyst Fellowship funded by the John Templeton Foundation, which will support early career researchers in astrophysics and in social sciences as they study big data generated from the soon-to-be-completed Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. Rubin Observatory is operated jointly by NSF’s NOIRLab and the US Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC).
Announced at the Rubin 2021 Program and Community Workshop this month, the program is the first fellowship of its kind. Researchers from disparate fields — including those from traditionally underrepresented groups and institutions — will converge to pursue an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to science.
The fellowship is a part of the LSST Interdisciplinary Network for Collaboration and Computing (LINCC) initiative, an ambitious program by LSST Corporation that will lead community efforts to build software infrastructure for big-data astronomy.
The fellowship program will fund 10 new astrophysics fellows and several social science fellows, selected from institutions around the globe. One fellow from each cohort will be stationed at a historically underserved institution. 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.
For more information, see the LSST Corporation announcement.
Links
Contacts
Vanessa Thomas
Public Information Officer
NSF’s NOIRLab
Tel: +1 520 318 8132
Email: vanessa.thomas@noirlab.edu
