Travel Administrator Laurie Thomas joined the LSST Project Office (LSSTPO) in January. As Travel Administrator, Laurie is responsible for ensuring all LSSTPO travel complies with federal regulations as well as AURA and LSST policies and procedures. She will help manage a strategic approach to travel by coordinating all staff travel arrangements and by processing all travel expense reports. She is already working with the AURA Procurement Manager to launch a new Concur travel platform that can eventually be shared with other AURA centers. Prior to LSST, Laurie worked for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) for 15 years, the last eight as Manager for Travel and Meeting Services. Experienced with various travel platforms and registration systems, Laurie has coordinated travel for clinical and scientific conferences; board, sponsor and staff meetings; and numerous television production projects. She has spearheaded logistics for meetings and conferences ranging from six to 800 attendees.
Telescope and SIte Technical Manager Shawn Callahan joined the LSST project February 2. Shawn will lead the telescope mount assembly fabrication effort. He also expects to work on interfaces to the primary/tertiary (M1M3) mirror cell and support system. Immediately prior to LSST, Shawn was a senior mechnical engineer with a Caltech team developing an integral field unit spectrometer called the Keck Cosmic Web Instrument (KCWI). He also was a senior or principle engineer for Keck Observatory, the Multiple Mirror Telescope Observatory (MMT), and the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). At Keck he was the program manager for analyzing and determining the cost/benefit/risk for the facility's various seismic risk mitigation plans. At MMT and LBT, he contributed to the development, procurement, verification and installation of the telescopes. His responsibilities included optical support structures, working with design firms for structural and mechanical systems, factory inspections around the world, and installations.
IT Technician Joseph Cockrum joined the LSSTPO on February 2. As IT Technician, Joseph will provide support for desktop computers, laptops, and other stand-alone clients on the LSST computing network. He also will assist the IT Systems Administrator in upgrades and configuration changes. Prior to LSST, Joseph worked at Sunnyside Unified School District where he provided comprehensive technical assistance for more than 1,200 teachers, staff members, students and administrators at 21 different sites.
In the photo, left to right, are Laurie Thomas, Shawn Callahan and Joseph Cockrum.
Financial support for Rubin Observatory comes from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through Cooperative Support Agreement No. 1202910, the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science under Contract No. DE-AC02-76SF00515, and private funding raised by the LSST Corporation. The NSF-funded Rubin Observatory Project Office for construction was established as an operating center under management of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA). The DOE-funded effort to build the the Rubin Observatory LSST Camera (LSSTCam) is managed by the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC).
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an
independent federal agency created by Congress
in 1950 to promote the progress of science. NSF supports basic research and people to create knowledge that transforms the future.
NSF and DOE will continue to support Rubin Observatory in its Operations phase. They will also provide support for scientific research with LSST data.
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