Last week we were delighted to be able to present in front of the UW Foundation Board at their first meeting of the academic year. Our fearless Director Mario Juric, the newest member of our leadership team Sarah Greenstreet, and myself shared a tiny slice of the incredible work the DiRAC team has produced over the last six years, the excitement we feel with the beginning of Rubin/LSST right around the corner, and a few of the science highlights from our renowned Solar System research group.

This event also allowed us to thank our community of supporters, including and especially Charles and Lisa Simonyi whose gift launched DiRAC and our DiRAC Fellowship program, the many Husky Giving Day donors who have enabled our Summer Research Prize, especially our board members David Brooks and Jeff Glickman, and our colleagues and leadership across the UW and College of Arts and Sciences. The careers launched, discoveries made, and friendships built are all enabled by this support.

After the UW Foundation Board presentation, we were honored to host a deep-dive event for the Directors at the eScience Institute, showcasing the breadth of science happening in the Department of Astronomy. It was a banner day for UW Astronomy and DiRAC, and I’m so grateful to our team for making it happen. A very special thanks to our outreach director, Nikolina Horvat, for making these events happen!

I look forward to welcoming everyone at future events we’re planning, and can’t wait to see what new surprises about the Universe we’ll find this year…

James Davenport
Associate Director, DiRAC