Andres Plazas, SLAC/Stanford
When
Where
Abstract: The NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory is poised to transform astronomy through the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) using LSSTCam, the largest camera in the world for astronomy, to repeatedly image the southern sky over a decade, starting this year. Rubin’s scientific reach spans dark matter and dark energy, the dynamic sky, the Milky Way, and the Solar System. Realizing this scientific promise, however, requires more than a remarkable telescope and camera: it demands a precise understanding of detector behavior, calibration, and data systematics.
In this talk, I will discuss how my work across weak lensing cosmology and systematic error characterization, detector characterization (from DECam CCDs to Roman infrared detectors to LSSTCam), survey validation, and roles in Rubin’s Data Management and Community Science teams fit into the broader effort to turn Rubin into a precision discovery machine. Finally, I will highlight how mentoring, outreach, community building, and inclusive infrastructure are integral to ensuring that Rubin’s scientific revolution is as broad and transformative as the data itself.
He joined the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2015 as a Caltech Postdoctoral Scholar, working on understanding systematic errors in weak lensing from the infrared detectors that will be used by the wide-field imager of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Dr. Plazas Malagón also has worked as a Research Scientist at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, as part of the Cosmoquest project for community science. Subsequently, he worked at Princeton University as an Associate Research Scholar in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences as part of the Algorithms and Pipelines team of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.
He currently works as Rubin Operations Scientist in the Rubin Community Science Team as part of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University, and the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (SLAC/Stanford University), with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.
Dr. Plazas Malagón is also an Affiliate at the Department of Physics of Harvard University, a Visiting Research Scientist at Boston University, and a Visiting Scientist at the Department of Physics of Washington University in St. Louis. He is the founder of the Astronomy on Tap satellite branches in St. Louis and Trenton (NJ), the creator and co-host of the astronomy podcast in Spanish “Visión Cósmica”, the proposer and co-organizer of the first ever Tower Grove Park Astronomy Festival in St. Louis, the proposer and co-organizer of the first-ever outreach event in Spanish at the Harvard College Observatory, and frequently organizes Science Education and Public Outreach events in Spanish and English as a NASA JPL Solar System Ambassador volunteer.
3:00 PM in PAS 201 / Zoom https://arizona.zoom.us/j/86395646910
Refreshments in PAS 236, 2:30PM