Simonyi-NSF Scholars Special Session
Submitted by burcinmp on Sun, 05/24/2026 - 14:57
In this special session, the Simonyi-NSF Scholars will present their LSST research projects. These scholars are the recipients of NSF grants co-funded as part of the Simonyi-NSF Scholarship Program, a partnership between Charles Simonyi and NSF to support early-career scientists in their contribution to Rubin's LSST.
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Igor Lorenzo Andreoni (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Title: Establishing Multi-wavelength Time-domain Communities in the Rubin Era
Abstract: The Rubin LSST has now started. In this new era, it will be more important than ever to have infrastructure that will pull multi-wavelength information together to identify sources of interest swiftly and trigger follow-up observations. This is particularly relevant, for instance, for the study of multi-messenger sources and relativistic transients. Our team is building tools that will promptly deliver such combined alerts and parameter inference, and we are calculating realistic expectations for cosmic explosions to be found by Rubin in synergy with other new survey telescopes.
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Dmitrii Vavilov (University of Washington)
Title: Rubin Rocks: statistical analysis of NEO dynamical histories
Abstract: As the number of known Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) continues to grow, especially with upcoming data from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), efficient methods are needed to study their dynamical histories. Numerical N-body integrations provide important information about their origin and evolution, but they are computationally expensive and not always practical for individual objects. We present Rubin Rocks, a web-based service and API that gives access to precomputed statistical results from large-scale simulations, allowing users to quickly estimate source region probabilities, dynamical lifetimes, and orbital histories from input orbital elements, with optional uncertainties. For more detailed studies, we also provide access to a high-performance Gauss–Lobatto integrator, Lobbie, designed for accurate long-term integrations with many close encounters, which is at least twice as fast as widely used methods such as IAS15 in REBOUND while providing higher numerical accuracy. By combining fast statistical tools with a reliable integrator, Rubin Rocks supports both population studies and detailed analysis of individual NEOs.
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Danielle Frostig (Harvard & Smithsonian)
Title: Boombox: Increasing spectroscopic follow-up for Rubin
Abstract: The Rubin Observatory will discover >1 million transients per year, yet <0.05% will be spectroscopically classified with current resources. Boombox is a new pair of spectrographs for the MMT and Magellan telescopes designed to meet this need, offering broad optical coverage (355-1010nm), moderate resolution (R~1000), and high throughput to r≈23.5. Integrated into the Via survey—a 600-fiber, 1 deg² robotic, fiber-fed program—36 fibers feed Boombox directly. As part of this effort, Boombox will be on-sky for >100 nights per year, operating in parallel with its partner instrument ViaSpec, leading the survey 10% of the time. This configuration enables rapid target-of-opportunity interrupts and efficient large-scale spectroscopic campaigns. Its broad wavelength range and sensitivity on 6.5m telescopes will expand transient classification and support diverse science, including ultra-cool dwarfs, FRB hosts, kilonovae, and other rare events. We present the instrument design and build status, with commissioning expected in 2027.
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Mansi Kasliwal (California Institute of Technology)
Title: BOOM and Babamul: a multi-survey alert broker operating at scale
Abstract: I will present software infrastructure updates on the Babamul broker with the BOOM backend. I will also present some interesting candidates from the beginning of the Rubin stream.
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Aashay Pai & Alex Drlica-Wagner (University of Chicago)
Title: A Deep Look at the Ultra-Faint Dwarf Galaxy Virgo III with Rubin Observatory Early Data Preview 2
Abstract: Ultra-faint dwarf galaxies represent some of the oldest, most chemically pristine, and most dark-matter-dominated galaxies. The depth and coverage of Rubin Observatory’s LSST are expected to double to triple the known population of ultra-faint dwarf galaxies around the Milky Way. Rubin LSST is expected to discover fainter and more distant ultra-faint galaxies than have been discovered previously. As a demonstration of the future power of Rubin LSST in this domain, we present an analysis of the distant ultra-faint dwarf galaxy Virgo III using data from Rubin’s Early Data Preview 2 (EDP2). Virgo III resides in the deep M49 First Look field, which most closely resembles the all-sky capabilities of Rubin LSST after ten years of observing. We present updated measurements of Virgo III, including measurements of its three known RR Lyrae stars. We also validate star/galaxy separation and photometric metallicity selection in Rubin DP2.
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Gautham Narayan (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Title: Is Dark Energy Constant? Rubin and the Young Supernova Experiment
Abstract: The Dark Energy Survey's Dovekie reanalysis, with DESI baryon acoustic oscillations, prefers an evolving dark energy equation of state over a cosmological constant at 3.2σ in flat w₀wₐCDM: suggestive, but not yet decisive. Settling the question needs thousands of well-calibrated Type Ia supernovae across redshift, and control over their dominant systematic — their astrophysics. My NSF-Simonyi CAREER program builds toward that answer with the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory. I will describe the Young Supernova Experiment Data Release 2, which grows our sample past 5,000 supernovae and gives the largest low-redshift griz sample yet to anchor the Rubin Hubble diagram, and later NASA’s Roman Space Telescope. I will then show a cross-survey analysis of the 18 supernovae seen in both Rubin's Data Preview 1 and our well-calibrated YSE DECam imaging, extended with host-galaxy photometry from ESA's Euclid Q1 release: a first check of the earliest LSST photometry and a preview of the LSST era. With Rubin now on sky and its first supernovae in hand, we can begin to use the upcoming DP2 data release to ask whether dark energy is truly constant, or if we are glimpsing new physics.
Lead or Chair for this Session:
Burcin Mutlu-Pakdil, Louise Edwards
Category:
Science
Location:
Kavli
Timeblock:
10:30am - 12:00pm
Day:
Friday
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