At DiRAC Institute, we are fortunate to have a talented group of astronomers whose work is expanding our understanding of the universe. From exploring the outer solar system and developing algorithms for asteroid impact prevention to advocating for cleaner skies and advancing the search for asteroids, their research is making significant contributions to the field of astronomy. We’re excited to share a glimpse into their work and the unique projects they’re leading, brought to you by the dedicated team of journalists from the UW News Lab: Amelia Kim, Dany Villarreal, Cassie Diamond, Pei Xu and Cameron Delfin.
Here are a few profiles of our researchers, showcasing their areas of expertise and contributions to the field.
Prof James Davenport (center) discusses unusual stars with the 2022 cohort of Summer Research Prize winners.
Since 2022, DiRAC and the UW Department of Astronomy has supported undergraduate research through awards of the annual Summer Research Prize. I’m so proud that we’ve been able to support 12 upcoming scholars, whose work has been featured in publications, have gone on to graduate studies, and have been recognized with other awards!
This year we’re hoping to have our biggest cohort of Summer Research Prize scholars yet, thanks to a partnership with the LINCC Frameworks team this year! It’s a thrilling time for astronomy at UW. We eagerly await the first data from Rubin Observatory this summer, missions like JWST and TESS continue to drive discoveries, and advances in AI and ML are allowing our students to ask even bolder questions about the Universe.
I am so grateful for the support our community has shown these student scholars. The Summer Research Prize has been enabled through the foundational gifts of David Brooks and Jeff Glickman, the DiRAC Board, Faculty at the UW, and a wide group of supporters in the Pacific Northwest and beyond!
This year I’m asking you once again to join us in empowering our students to pursue their research. Your donations of support can be the catalyst that launches a career, often making the difference for a student to stay in Seattle and work alongside faculty and graduate students, which pushes their research towards publication and conference presentations.
Go to our Make a Gift page between March 18 and April 11, 2025 to pledge your support for student astronomy research at the University of Washington, and help the next generation of astronomers discover the universe through data-intensive discovery!
I’m excited to reach out to you today as we close out another year of groundbreaking scientific work.
And what a year it was! Our researchers published the first results from the DECam Ecliptic Exploration Program (or DEEP), the largest exploration program of the outer solar system to date. Our students made their mark by discovering rare stars and pinpointing mysterious X-ray sources. Our team also added to resolving the growing challenge of satellite constellations, studying their impact on Earth-based astronomy and exploring solutions to balance technological advancement with the need for clear skies. In total, since our founding, we have co-authored over 900 papers, earning more than 16,000 citations, including developing innovative algorithms and software that are advancing the next generation of astronomical discoveries. And our excellent undergraduates are a centerpiece of UW’s new Be Boundless campaign, held up as the example of cutting-edge innovation and teaching conducted at the University of Washington.
But the major milestone this year has been the start of commissioning of the Rubin Observatory. After nearly two decades of research, development and construction, on October 23rd the test camera on the Simonyi Telescope took the first image of the sky. This was a truly momentous occasion for the entire team. DiRAC researchers have built the core parts of the system that focuses the telescope, as well as the data processing system that analyzes the data downstream: seeing it work so well was an incredibly gratifying experience! With these first data in hand, we look towards 2025 confident that by the end of it Rubin will begin the largest optical sky survey in history: the Legacy Survey of Space and Time.
That will be our focus for 2025: realizing the 20 years of investment in Rubin by producing the first ground-breaking science from this paradigm-changing telescope.
Our researchers and students will use Rubin to search for asteroids that may impact the Earth, try to locate the 9th planet in the Solar System, understand how our planets formed, map the variable stars in our Galaxy, build the deepest map of the Milky Way, understand how the Universe as a whole is expanding, and much, much, more!
Where we are now would not be possible without you — our students and postdocs have been exploring the Universe and preparing for Rubin thanks to your support. And your continued support is what will enable these first discoveries: from funding the Summer Research Prizes for our undergraduate students – allowing them to spend a summer focused solely on research – to DiRAC Postdoctoral Fellowships which allow us to bring the best and brightest talent in astrophysics to solve these hard research problems, to outreach activities letting us bring this work into Seattle-area high schools and beyond.
The Simonyi Survey Telescope now has its mirrors and a camera in place. (Credit: Rubin Observatory)
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Simonyi Survey Telescope will make use of an 8.4-meter primary mirror and an 3.5-meter secondary mirror. Note the size of the support structure compared with the size of the workers on the platform. (Credit: Rubin Observatory / NSF / AURA / F. Munoz Arancibia)
LSST Camera Arrives at Rubin Observatory in Chile
Left to Right: Sophia Watts, Maggie Vickers, Giovanni Gollotti, and Felix Knowlton
Welcome back to campus as we embark on a new academic year! I hope you all had a great summer and are ready to dive into your studies and research.
This summer was a vibrant time for the DiRAC community, marked by significant research endeavors. I’m excited to highlight some of this research: Aritra Ghosh’s groundbreaking paper, published in August, explores the fascinating relationship between galaxies in dense environments and the effects of their surroundings. Using machine learning techniques, Aritra analyzed 3 million galaxies observed by the Subaru telescope and conclusively showed that galaxies with many neighbors are larger than their more isolated counterparts — an observational result that contradicts current theoretical expectations. If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, I highly encourage you to do so!
Additionally, I’m thrilled to welcome our new DiRAC members who have joined us this quarter: Prof. Nora Shipp, Astronomy Assistant Professor and new addition to the DiRAC Faculty; Dr. Peter Ferguson, the 2024 DiRAC Postdoctoral Fellow; Dr. Arpit Arora, a postdoc studying galactic dynamics and dark matter; and Michael Tauraso, Software Engineer with the LINCC Frameworks. They bring a diverse set of interests and skills to our team, just in time for LSST. With Nora, Arpit, and Peter joining us, I look forward to DiRAC playing a major role in near-field cosmology in the upcoming years.
As always, we’re striving to make this academic year a productive and inspiring one, filled with learning and discovery. But this year will be special: after nearly two decades of R&D and construction, the Rubin Observatory is entering its commissioning phase in early November and will begin the largest survey of the universe in mid-2025. Expect to read more about it on these pages over the next few months, as the first data starts to arrive.
Welcome to the year of discovery, and follow us as we strive to understand the universe!
UWBe BoundlessCampaign featured Professor Mario Jurić and his undergraduate students, showcasing how to use cutting-edge coding skills to help scientists make the most of discoveries from a revolutionary Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s telescope.
The Rubin Observatory, in northern Chile, will begin a 10-year survey of the night sky in 2025. It is an example of how to harness new technology to drive discoveries and cultivate a new generation of innovators.
Every night, the Rubin’s Simonyi Survey Telescope will capture millions of changes in stars and other objects. This database of the night sky will require algorithms to sift through the billions of bits of information, so DiRAC scientists and engineers are already crafting the software. And that’s where the future astronomers in Jurić’s class come in.
At the University of Washington Peter Ferguson is a DiRAC postdoctoral fellow as well as a fellow in the eScience institute. Previously, he was a postdoc at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was part of the observational cosmology group, and he completed his PhD at Texas A&M University.
Peter Ferguson is interested in learning about the nature of dark matter and galaxy formation using wide-field astronomical surveys such as the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.
In particular, he works on finding and characterizing stellar streams and dwarf galaxies in the local universe and enabling this science by making infrastructure level contributions to cosmological surveys. These contributions range from instrumentation and calibration to science validation and software development.
In a new paper published in The Astrophysical Journal, the team, which used a machine-learning algorithm to analyze millions of galaxies, reports that galaxies found in denser regions of the universe are as much as 25% larger than isolated galaxies. The findings resolve a long-standing debate among astrophysicists over the relationship between a galaxy’s size and its environment, but also raise new questions about how galaxies form and evolve over billions of years.
Dr. Aritra Ghosh
Dr. Aritra Ghosh, a UW postdoctoral researcher in astronomy and an LSST-DA Catalyst Fellow with the UW’s DiRAC Institute, led the team behind this discovery, which includes researchers at Yale, the Leibniz Institute and Waseda University. Dr. Andrew Connolly, a UW professor of astronomy, is co-author on the study.
Here is a link to the full story written by James Urton for the UW News.
Left to Right: Sophia Watts, Maggie Vickers, Giovanni Gollotti, and Felix Knowlton
At the end of August, we were treated to wrap-up presentations by the four Summer Research Prize recipients. Now in its third year, the Summer Research Prize is awarded to support new and ongoing undergraduate research projects, and help students work closely with their mentors at the University of Washington. This prize is made possible through the generous support of our community, faculty, and friends, and has been featured in the UW College of Arts and Sciences’ Newsletter.
Our 2024 prize winners included:
Sophia Watts (Advisors Yakov Faerman, Matt McQuinn) Investigating intergalactic filaments and sheets
Maggie Vickers (Advisor: Bruce Balick) Examining Density Tracers in Low-Ionization structures in Planetary Nebula
Giovanni Gollotti (Advisors: Andy Tzanidakis, Tobin Wainer) A New Candidate Triplet Binary System in the Beta-Pic Moving Group: HIP 23309
Felix Knowlton (Advisors: Jake Kurlander, Mario Jurić) High-Fidelity HelioLinC Stress-Testing for LSST Preparedness
I find it especially exciting how these projects span almost the entire range of astronomy and astrophysics work happening at UW, from simulations of baby galaxies from Sophia, to the remnants dying stars from Maggie – from current mysteries of an unusual binary star system from Giovanni, to developing the code to rapidly find the most unusual asteroids in future surveys from Felix. UW Astronomy and DiRAC are host to a wide range of discovery and innovation, and each year the Summer Research Prize shows just a tiny piece of this great work.
Thank you to the generous community that enables truly stellar student research at the University of Washington, especially our principal donor again this year, DiRAC Advisory Board member David Brooks. You are helping the next generation of scholars to build the most advanced datasets, algorithms, and tools to explore and understand the universe!
I invite you all to join us again next year for more student-driven discovery!
Last Wednesday, the UW planetarium became the epicenter of excitement and discovery, hosting an event that left attendees starry-eyed and inspired. The evening was filled with captivating presentations about current and anticipated discoveries with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory which is currently in the last phase of the construction in Chile.
As guests arrived, they were greeted by the DiRAC team. The lobby buzzed with conversations about the evening’s program. The event kicked off with a warm welcome from Prof. Mario Juric, DiRAC director, who highlighted the importance of community engagement in the pursuit of scientific knowledge. Followed by the latest updates from Prof. Zeljko Ivezic, Rubin Observatory Construction Project Director. Prof. Ivezic took to the stage to introduce this cutting-edge observatory, which promises to revolutionize our understanding of the universe. Equipped with the latest in telescope technology, this observatory will allow scientists to look deeper into space than ever before.
UW Planetarium
DiRAC Reception
Prof. Juric Presentation
LSST Camera | Vera C. Rubin
Andy Tzanidakis Graduate Student UW Planetarium Coordinator
LSST Camera Transportation from USA to Chile
Prof. Željko Ivezic
The Planetarium Experience
The highlight of the night was the planetarium experience led by Prof. Andy Connolly. The presentation detailed how the observatory’s advanced camera would enable the discovery, the study of distant galaxies, and the exploration of cosmic phenomena that have long puzzled astronomers. The audience was treated to stunning visuals of the observatory’s capabilities, and the excitement in the room was wonderful to experience.
Engaging Presentations
Following the planetarium show, a series of presentations captivated the audience. Each talk was a quick dive into one segment that Rubin will help us understand. Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) were the topic of this session. It was designed to educate and inspire. The audience was left in awe, with many expressing a newfound appreciation for the unknown of our universe.
Interactive Q&A Sessions
The event also featured interactive Q&A sessions, where attendees had the opportunity to ask questions and engage with the experts. These sessions sparked lively discussions and provided deeper insights into the topics covered. It was clear that the audience was eager to learn, with questions ranging from the technical aspects of the new observatory to the implications of recent discoveries.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank again everyone for their participation and to emphasize the importance of public support for scientific endeavors and encouraged everyone to stay curious and engaged.
The planetarium event was more than just a series of presentations; it was a celebration of human curiosity and the relentless pursuit of knowledge. As guests departed, they carried with them not only a deeper understanding of the universe but also a sense of wonder and inspiration. The night was a testament to the power of education and the limitless possibilities that lie ahead as we continue to explore the cosmos.
Left to Right: Sophia Watts, Maggie Vickers, Giovanni Gollotti, and Felix Knowlton
I am so excited to announce our 2024 cohort of Summer Research Prize winners, whose work spans a wide range of astrophysics! Now in its third year, the Summer Research Prize is awarded to support new and ongoing undergraduate research projects, and help students work closely with their mentors at the University of Washington. This prize is made possible through the generous support of our community, faculty, and friends, and has been featured in the UW College of Arts and Sciences’ Newsletter.
Now, on to our 2024 winners!
Felix Knowlton (Advisors: Jake Kurlander, Mario Jurić) High-Fidelity HelioLinC Stress-Testing for LSST Preparedness
Maggie Vickers (Advisor: Bruce Balick) Examining Density Tracers in Low-Ionization structures in Planetary Nebula
Sophia Watts (Advisors Yakov Faerman, Matt McQuinn) Investigating intergalactic filaments and sheets
Thank you to the generous community that supports truly stellar student research at the University of Washington, especially our principle donor again this year, DiRAC Advisory Board member David Brooks. You are helping the next generation of scholars to build the most advanced datasets, algorithms, and tools to explore and understand the universe!
