KIPAC Newsletter Winter 2025

KIPAC Newsletter

January 2025

Dear Friends of KIPAC,

Happy new year! This was an incredible year for KIPAC, as we highlight in our newsletter below and in our KIPAC Report for 2022-2024.

In May, scientists at KIPAC and SLAC delivered the 3.2 Gigapixel LSST Camera to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, and many of our members have been hard at work getting it up and running. So far things seem to be working incredibly well; the team just completed a run with the commissioning camera, and the LSST camera will be installed in the next few months. After more than 20 years of planning and hard work, later this year we are expecting first light from the Rubin Observatory, kicking off what we hope will be more than a decade of new discoveries.

This fall, KIPAC kicked off a new collaboration with Stanford Data Science, the Center for Decoding the Universe, which will provide a new platform to collaborate and innovate across disciplines. For the first time, we acquired institutional access to the Magellan Telescopes, which will enable all of our members to apply for time for the full range of science possible with these instruments. KIPAC scientists are playing leading roles in a new Phase A NASA probe mission, AXIS, and a new project, Via, that will map the Milky Way at unprecedented precision with instruments on Magellan and MMT.

We hope you will enjoy our latest KIPAC report, linked below, which covers the 2022-23 and 2023-24 academic years, including highlights from our 20th anniversary celebration and 20 years of our accomplished alumni. KIPAC also welcomed many new members this fall, including more than 20 new research scientists and postdoctoral fellows, as well as an incredibly talented class of new gradaute students.

With so much to look forward to, 2025 promises to be the best year yet for KIPAC.

Wishing you and yours all the best in this new year,

Risa Wechsler
Director, Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology
Stanford University and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Center for Decoding the Universe kicks off!

A new interdisciplinary center—the Center for Decoding the Universe—has been established! A joint initiative of Stanford Data Science (SDS) and KIPAC, this center brings together researchers from across Stanford and SLAC to collaborate on leveraging complex data to inform physical inference. The Center aims to unlock the physics of the Universe by pioneering innovative approaches to extracting insights from vast, multi-modal datasets and large numerical simulations. The biggest open questions we will pursue range from the nature of dark matter and dark energy to the evolution of cosmic structures and the physics governing galaxies, stars, gas, compact objects, and high-energy events, and we expect to use and develop new methodologies in AI, machine learning, data science, and statistics.

To help kick off the new Center, we have hired two AI-Astro Research Scientists, Dalya Baron and Jo Ciuca. Dalya was a postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie Observatories before joining Stanford, and her work focuses on combining multi-wavelength observations with analysis of large astronomical surveys, using machine learning and data science tools to extract novel information from astronomical datasets. Jo joined Stanford after a postdoctoral fellowship at the Australian National University. In her interdisciplinary work, Jo creates innovative methods to explore large astronomical datasets with state-of-the-art AI and machine learning techniques.

On Wednesday, Oct. 16, the Center held its inaugural quarterly forum, marking the beginning of its work in applying data science techniques to astrophysical questions. Following each of three overview talks that introduced big open questions in astrophysics, a talk from an expert methodologist highlighted related areas of inquiry using similar data or inference methodologies in other contexts. Summary and recordings of the first forum are available.

The Center will host its next quarterly forum on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. If you are interested in learning more about the frontiers at the intersection of data science, AI, and astrophysics, join the Center's mailing list! We also encourage you to check out the recent Stanford Report articles about the establishment of the Center and how Stanford's first GPU-based supercomputer may transform astrophysical research.

Magellan Time at KIPAC

With the support of Stanford and SLAC, KIPAC has acquired access to one of the world’s most powerful optical observatories: the twin Magellan telescopes at Las Campanas in Chile!

Each of the twin Magellan Telescopes is a 6.5-meter optical telescope equipped with instruments capable of studying a wide range of astrophysical topics, including dark matter, dark energy, galaxy formation, star-forming regions, and compact objects. Stanford partnered with Carnegie Observatories and Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics to acquire the time; the telescopes were built and are managed by the Magellan Project, a collaborative effort of Carnegie, Harvard University, University of Arizona, University of Michigan, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The allocation of KIPAC’s Magellan observing time for Spring 2025 was determined through a competitive (and oversubscribed!) internal proposal process in October 2024, during which 7 proposals were selected. These selected projects span a wide range of topics, from high-resolution stellar spectroscopy and IFU measurements of nearby galaxies, to strong gravitational lensing and other time-domain observations. We will have the capability to conduct observations remotely through a dedicated remote observing facility in the Physics and Astrophysics Building on the Stanford campus.

New Project Highlights

The Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite (AXIS) has been selected as one of the two possible projects to go forward as a new class of NASA astrophysics missions, Probe Explorers. AXIS's high sensitivity and spatial and spectral resolution will impact a broad range of astrophysical studies, from examining supermassive black holes and their influence on galaxy evolution, to resolving high-energy events such as supernova remnants, and to detecting numerous transient X-ray events within our galaxy. Partnering with NASA, MIT, and the University of Maryland, the X-ray Astronomy and Observational Cosmology (XOC) group at Stanford, led by KIPAC Professor Steve Allen, is developing a new circuit for the AXIS detector that enables fast readout with a low noise level.

Stanford and KIPAC were awarded $5M from The Kavli Foundation to enable the Via Project, an in-depth study of the Milky Way. Working with partners at Harvard University, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Carnegie Observatories, and Yale University, the team at KIPAC, led by Profs. Risa Wechsler and Susan Clark, will build and deploy a set of twin multi-object spectrographs for the MMT (United States) and Magellan (Chile) 6.5-m telescopes. Via combines a wide field of view with high-resolution spectroscopy, which will enable unique high-precision radial velocities of millions of stars. The placement of these spectrographs in both the northern and southern hemispheres will enable a full view of the sky.

The Via Project aims to detect the impact of tiny dark matter halos on thin structures in the Milky Way, map cold gas in the Milky Way, and identify and characterize Milky Way satellite galaxies. With a planned survey beginning in 2027, Via will also leverage data from the Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), which is expected to detect new faint galaxies and stellar streams that Via will map in more detail. Via also includes an instrument designed to quickly and efficiently follow up many of the transient events expected to be detected by LSST.

50th Anniversary of the Stanford Student Observatory

Located in the hills above the Stanford golf course, the Stanford Student Observatory has turned 50 years old! Originally built by a group of undergraduate students in physics, engineering, and architecture, the observatory is now a key teaching facility for multiple observational courses, ranging from introductory undergraduate levels (Physics 50 for non-STEM majors and Physics 100 for astronomy-track physics majors) to graduate levels (Physics 301). In the past few years, KIPAC has also offered numerous stargazing events at the observatory for student groups, Stanford affiliates, and the general public.

On Wednesday, Oct. 30, we celebrated the observatory’s 50th anniversary by inviting three of the original builders to present on the history of this commendable, student-led project. Invited speakers included Nicholas Suntzeff (’74 B.S. in Math from Stanford and ’80 Ph.D. from UC Santa Cruz; original student leader), Michael Kast (’74 B.S. and ’76 M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford; original student leader), and Ken Kornberg (’72 A.B. in Architecture and ’72 M.S. in Engineering from Stanford; designer of the observatory structure).

The observatory now houses two dome telescopes: a 24-inch Cassegrain/Newtonian telescope and a 0.7-meter PlaneWave telescope. A new 0.7-meter telescope and a new dome were installed at the observatory in the summer of 2023, under the leadership of KIPAC faculty Steve Allen and former member Bruce Macintosh. A group of KIPAC graduate students, including Anthony Michael Flores, Jenny Wan, Ben Dodge, Theo Schutt, and Brianna Cantrall, commissioned the 0.7-meter telescope in Winter 2024, led by Observatory Manager Keith Thompson.

Learn more about the history of the Stanford Student Observatory. 

Meet Our New Senior Member

Adam Bolton has joined SLAC and KIPAC as a Senior Staff Scientist and lead for the Rubin US Data Facility hosted at SLAC. Previously, Adam has held appointments as the Director of the Community Science and Data Center program at NSF NOIRLab and as a tenured Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Utah. His interests are in dark matter, strong lensing, massive galaxies, advanced algorithms, and the power of big surveys to promote inclusive research.

New Postdoc Highlights

Shreya Anand started at KIPAC this Fall as an LSST Catalyst Fellow after completing her PhD at California Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on using observational and machine-driven techniques to discover and study rare transients in large time-domain surveys such as the Zwicky Transient Facility, La Silla Schmidt Southern Survey, and Rubin Observatory.

Dylan Jow has joined KIPAC as a Kavli Fellow after completing his PhD at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on using propagation effects of compact radio sources (e.g., Fast Radio Bursts and pulsars) to learn about different aspects of the Universe, from the ionized plasma in the interstellar medium to cosmology to gravitational waves.

Kate Storey-Fisher has joined KIPAC as a Kavli Fellow, after completing her PhD at New York University and a one-year postdoctoral position at Donostia International Physics Center in Spain. Her research focuses on inferring cosmological information from galaxy surveys, drawing on techniques from data science, statistics, and machine learning.

Several other fantastic scientists have also joined us recently as KIPAC fellows. These include Suchetha Cooray, Philipp Frank, Eric Moseley, Jiatianfu (Frank) Qu, Carlos Sierra, Osmond Wen, and Weishuang (Linda) Xu (SLAC-KIPAC Fellow).

Public Engagement

KIPAC is proud to continue offering a variety of educational opportunities and sharing the latest discoveries in astrophysics with K-16 students, families, and the general public. In Fall 2024, we have offered a wide variety of outreach events, with the following highlighted:

  • Public lectures (check out past lecture recordings on YouTube):
    • Solar Maximum (Nov. 4, 2024)
    • Fast Radio Bursts (Dec. 5, 2024)
  • Stargazing Nights:
    • In person at the Stanford Student Observatory
      • Stargazing for Stanford affiliates + guests (Nov. 18, 2024)
      • Public stargazing (Dec. 2, 2024)
      • Multiple stargazing nights for student groups and partners
  • Noches Astronómicas: Spanish event featuring flash talks and panel Q&A
    • Nov. 2024 on Stanford campus

We are busy preparing for a full spectrum of programs in 2025, including a large community event in April! Want to be notified when we have an event scheduled? Sign up for the KIPAC outreach mailing list and we will be touch!

KIPAC Report (2022-2024)

KIPAC Report (2022-2024)
Click to read the full KIPAC Report

KIPAC in the News

Research Blog Posts

For more science and research highlights, please check our website.

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