Leadership

 

Faculty
My work focuses on using large surveys to study cosmology and the evolution of galaxies. This ranges from studying the clustering of galaxies and their evolution with redshift, weak gravitational Read More
Andrew ConnollyFaculty

My work focuses on using large surveys to study cosmology and the evolution of galaxies. This ranges from studying the clustering of galaxies and their evolution with redshift, weak gravitational lensing of galaxies, and estimating the properties of galaxies based on their colors (aka photometric redshifts). The common theme to this work is addressing the need for massive data sets and how to work with them. One area that interests me a lot at the moment is the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) where I lead the development of simulations of what LSST might observe. Beyond cosmology, I am also interested in how to make the technologies that companies use to search the internet useful in research and education.

Faculty
I am a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Washington. I am leading the development of major portions of two new large optical time-domain surveys. I Read More
Eric BellmFaculty

I am a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Washington.

I am leading the development of major portions of two new large optical time-domain surveys. I am the Alert Production Science Lead for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope as well as Survey Scientist for the Zwicky Transient Facility.

I use optical variability data to classify high-energy sources, particularly compact binaries. My research includes observation, instrumentation, and large-scale data analysis.

Associate Director
James Davenport is currently a NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow, working on stellar magnetic activity using time domain surveys such as Kepler and TESS. He received his PhD in Read More
James DavenportAssociate Director

James Davenport is currently a NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow, working on stellar magnetic activity using time domain surveys such as Kepler and TESS. He received his PhD in astronomy in 2015 from the University of Washington, and will be joining DIRAC full-time as a Research Scientist to study stellar ages and variability in large scale surveys. Check his work here.

Director
I’m interested in astronomical ‘Big Data’: developing and applying methods and algorithms that let us use large data sets to answer research questions. Major astronomical surveys of today are routinely Read More
Mario JurićDirector

I’m interested in astronomical ‘Big Data’: developing and applying methods and algorithms that let us use large data sets to answer research questions.

Major astronomical surveys of today are routinely collecting hundreds of terabytes of images, creating databases with billions of objects and several billion measurements. Large surveys astronomers are becoming part data scientists. In my research, I go where the data takes me — I’ve worked on topics ranging from asteroids in the Solar System, Galactic structure, to the scale structure of the universe. My current focus is using survey data to understand the minor bodies of the Solar System and the structure and evolution of the Milky Way.

Faculty
Željko Ivezić (pronounced something like Gel-co Eva-zich) obtained undergraduate degrees in mechanical engineering and physics from the University of Zagreb, Croatia, in 1990 and 1991. He obtained Ph.D. in physics Read More
Željko IvezićFaculty

Željko Ivezić (pronounced something like Gel-co Eva-zich) obtained undergraduate degrees in mechanical engineering and physics from the University of Zagreb, Croatia, in 1990 and 1991. He obtained Ph.D. in physics from the University of Kentucky in 1995, where he worked on dust radiative transfer models and wrote the code Dusty. He moved on to Princeton University in 1997 to work on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and took a professorship at the University of Washington, Seattle, in 2004. Željko’s scientific interests are in detection, analysis and interpretation of electromagnetic radiation from astronomical sources. His current obsession is the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope project, for which he serves as the Project Scientist.