Science Collaboration Mentors

My research group at UCatólica in Santiago, Chile works on a wide variety of topics involving massive BH and galaxy classification, demographics, evolution, and accretion physics, as well as rapid/extreme extragalactic variability events (Changing-State AGN, SNe, TDEs, FXRTs, ULXs, GW events, ...), using both traditional and machine-learning approaches.

As the Analysis Coordinator of DESC, I pay attention to all cosmological probes of dark energy and dark matter.  Previously, I served as Deputy Spokesperson and as a Large-Scale Structure working group convener.  I am also a member of the Galaxies SC and active in the Simons Observatory, HETDEX, ODIN, LADUMA, and JWST-CEERS collaborations.  Most of my previous postdoctoral mentees now occupy faculty positions.  

W. Niel Brandt is a Professor in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at Penn State University. Brandt uses a wide variety of astronomical facilities to study the demographics, physics, and ecology of active galaxies and other cosmic sources. He is an author of more than 600 research papers and leads a small research group including postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students. Brandt has served as the Chair/Co-Chair of the AGN SC for many years, and has also served in several other Rubin LSST positions.

I use the reverberation echo-mapping technique in order to study the inner structure of AGN, in particular the centrally obscuring dust emitting at infrared wavelengths. Such work involves modelling of optical photometric and spectroscopic light-curves, which are subsequently smoothed and shifted in order to determine the time delay between time series observed in different frequency bands. Currently preferred models are based on Gaussian Processes, which we have used successfully and extensively.

Knut Olsen's research interests span a broad range in the general area of stellar populations.  He is particularly interested in looking for evidence for processes of galaxy formation and evolution in the stars contained in nearby galaxies.  He has looked for clues to these processes in globular cluster systems, in the star formation history of field stars, in the interaction of massive stars with their surroundings, in internal galaxy dynamics, and in the faint structure of the outskirts of galaxies.  Techniques that he has applied to these problems include crowded field photometry, stella

My background is in solar system dynamics, but I have also been active in observational searches for solar system bodies and exoplanets, as well as in the development of efficient algorithmic solutions to difficult problems.  To that end, I plan to be involved in developing and refining tools to extend the senstivity of the Rubin Observatory to unusual types of objects (interstellar objects, very distant bodies, objects in highly inclined orbits, etc).  In addition, I hope to be involved in characterizing the efficiency and completeness of the LSST.

My primary interests involve gravitational waves and their optical counterparts, in particular using kilonovae as probes for the neutron star equation of state and expansion rate of the Universe. Within TVS, I am involved with the survey strategy and software groups, with a focus on technology to detect fast transients with Rubin.