Dear friends of DiRAC,

This summer marks an exciting turning point, not just for our Institute, but for astronomy as a whole: after years of anticipation, the construction of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is finally complete, and the first incredible images have been shared with the world!

It’s amazing to think that this project started almost 20 years ago, and I’m so proud that Seattle and the University of Washington have remained leaders in its design, development, and now discovery with LSST. I hope you will join us in Kane Hall on June 26 as we share these images with our community, and tell a few of the stories of the brilliant and hard-working people who have made this dream a reality.

The summer also marks a turning point for the leadership of DiRAC. I am deeply honored to step in to the role as Director of the DiRAC Institute this year. I joined DiRAC 8 years ago a Postdoctoral Fellow, drawn by the promise of new datasets and a collaborative environment where wild or even silly ideas could find a home. Now as a professor and Director, my goal is to take the scientific momentum built by Andy Connolly and Mario Juric, and support this amazing group of students, developers, and researchers into an era of unprecedented discovery. These are uncertain times for science. The broader funding and academic landscape is rocky, and it can feel harder than ever to plan for the long term. But if these past 8 years have taught me anything, it’s that imagination, persistence, and compassion are powerful force multipliers. Whether we’re tracking near-Earth asteroids, developing novel algorithms, or chasing the weird and wonderful outliers in our data, we thrive when we let curiosity lead the way.

I am so grateful that our community has continued to support us, funding a 4th year of our Summer Research Prize program, and new generations of Postdoctoral Fellows at DiRAC. So here’s to the coming decade of discoveries with Rubin/LSST. Here’s to students asking bold questions from our data. And here’s to finding joy – even a little absurdity – in the vast puzzle of the cosmos.

Thank you for being part of this journey with us, and keep looking up.

Jim Davenport
DiRAC Director