meet a DESI member

What is your position or role in the DESI project?
I am a member of DESI along with my graduate students and postdoc. In the past I have enjoyed helping out in a few different service roles in DESI such as publications board and co-chairing the C3 working group.

Where were you born?
I was born in a small town on the coast in Connecticut.

Where do you live now?
Now I live in Florida, where I am a professor at the University of Florida—which is farther from the beach than you’d think!

What do you do as part of DESI?
My group and I work on pushing forward 3-point correlation function and higher-order statistics to help us tighten our cosmological constraints as well as explore new physics during inflation like primordial non-Gaussianity and parity violation. I’m also part of an exciting secondary target project to get redshifts for WISE objects to improve the cross-correlation studies one can do with WISE and the cosmic microwave background (CMB).

What is the most interesting or exciting thing about your job?
I enjoy the idea that we can actually increase our knowledge of what the fundamental nature of reality is, both with studies aimed at understanding dark energy on a deeper level, and studies aimed at the very beginning of the Universe (inflation). Hibert said at some math congress in the early 1900s that “We must know; we will know” and I have always liked that phrase. it both conveys that fuller understanding of reality is an imperative, and an achievable imperative (so, it is optimistic).

Any advice for an aspiring scientist?
Nietzsche wrote somewhere “Become who you are, but not too early.” I think that’s good advice. Ultimately, I suspect that whatever original thing one is going to do in science will come out of pursuing one’s own particular, unique interests, in one’s own way, because that’s the only way to do something that everyone else isn’t already doing. So that’s how I see the first part. But I also think you shouldn’t restrict yourself too early based on “who you think you are” as a scientist. For instance, while probably what I enjoy the most is finding new mathematical ways to deal with problems, the work I’ve done that maybe has had the most impact actually came from developing algorithms. Recently I’ve gone as far as you can go from pen and paper and been trying to use Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) for cosmology. If I’d believed “who I am as a scientist” was just “pen and paper”, I would have closed myself off from that latter opportunity.

What do you do for fun?
I enjoy classical music a lot (both going to the symphony and playing the viola) and also watching English detective shows.

If you weren’t a scientist, what would be your dream job?
Probably being a classical musician, maybe one of the few careers even harder to find a permanent job in than academia. I also think I’d enjoy being an antiques dealer, but I’d have trouble ever parting with anything to sell it.

What excites/interests you most about DESI?
The people! Covid really brought home to me that having a community to learn from and interact with is an essential ingredient that makes science much more fun. It has been really interesting to go from being a graduate student in DESI to a postdoc to a faculty member, and I think that’s been a great opportunity to get to know people in pretty much every seniority layer of DESI on their own terms.

What is your position or role in the DESI project?
I’m a postdoc at Berkeley Lab since 2019. I have been involved in DESI since 2016 while I was a graduate student at University of Pittsburgh. I have worked on various aspects of DESI, including target selection, survey operations, and the DESI imaging surveys. I enjoy working on the interface between observation and theory, turning the data from the telescope into data and measurements that theorists can compare their models against. The day-to-day work involves a lot of programming, sometimes detective work to figure out what is causing issues in the data, and occasionally writing up the work into papers.

What is the most interesting or exciting thing about your job?
While working on the DESI imaging surveys, I would often examine the data quality by scrolling over images in the Legacy Surveys Viewer, and I’m always fascinated by how vast and beautiful our universe is. And I’m still amazed by the fact that, by mapping out these tiny (and seemingly random and chaotic) blobs of light on the night sky, we are learning something fundamental about our universe. And just as gratifying is being able to work with and learn from this great team of people that are so knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and kind.

Where were you born? And where do you live now?
I was born and grew up in Chongqing, China, also known as the “mountain city” and “city of fog” and was China’s provisional capital during WWII. It’s famous for its “mala” (literally numbing and spicy) food such as the hot pot. I went to school in Chongqing and the neighboring city of Chengdu, before coming to the US for my PhD degree. I currently live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

What do you do for fun?
I enjoy hiking, cycling, swimming, tennis, badminton, reading, cooking, listening to podcasts, learning new things on youtube, and casual photography.

If you weren’t a scientist, what would be your dream job?
It’s hard to imagine not being an academic of some sort. But if I were not a physicist, a few interesting careers come to mind, in no particular order: biologist/geneticist, geologist, historian, or economist.

Any advice for an aspiring scientist?
Do what you love. One of the best decisions in my life is switching to doing astronomy in the middle of graduate school when I knew barely anything about astronomy or cosmology, and turning a hobby (amateur astronomy) into a career.

What is your position or role in the DESI project?
I am postdoc researcher in the DESI C3 and clustering working groups.

Where were you born?
China

Where do you live now?
South Korea

What do you do as part of DESI?
Cosmology, larger-scale-structure, peculiar velocities, HOD, and mock sampling algorithms.

What is the most interesting or exciting thing about your job?
I developed a new HOD model for HI galaxies. I also expect this model can be used to model DESI emission line galaxies (ELGs).

Any advice for an aspiring scientist?
Have a global perspective.

What do you do for fun?
Video games.

If you weren’t a scientist, what would be your dream job?
Travel around the world.

What excites/interests you most about DESI?
DESI providing a larger working group and data set for my research.

What is your position or role in the DESI project?
I am a postdoctoral researcher at Kansas State University. Working closely with the Galaxy and Quasar Clustering, Target Selection, and Imaging Validation working groups, my role has centered around the characterization of observational systematic effects since 2016.

Where were you born and where do you live now?
I was born in Hamaden, a city in the midwest part of Iran. I spent a few years away from home for college, before coming to the states to pursue a PhD degree in Physics at Ohio University. I live in Columbus, Ohio now.

What do you do as part of DESI?
I develop methods and codes based on statistics and machine learning to remove the effects of observational systematics, such as those caused by Milky Way extinction. The objective is to enable robust and unbiased measurements of cosmological parameters.

What is the most interesting or exciting thing about your job?
The most interesting aspect about my job is that I get to collaborate with so many talented scientists from all over the world, and this opportunity has enhanced the caliber of my research in many ways.

Any advice for an aspiring scientist?
Learn computer programming and never be afraid to sign yourself up for new challenges; presentations, observations, or public outreach.

What do you do for fun?
I do love cooking for myself, playing pool with friends. I also like racing but unfortunately, I cannot afford a super car at the moment.

If you weren’t a scientist, what would be your dream job?
As a kid, I was curious about the mechanics of automobiles. I even considered choosing Mechanical Engineering as my major in College. If I had not pursued physics, I would have loved to become a mechanic, like Carrol Shelby, building an engine.

What excites/interests you most about DESI?
DESI is one-of-a-kind collaboration which is going to revolutionize modern cosmology in the 2020s. I am really excited about the massive amount of data and all the science that DESI provides and enables.

What is your position or role in the DESI project?
I am part of the lead author group preparing the C3 lensing mock challenge, and in particular, I am leading the effort to calibrate the source redshift distribution of the weak lensing catalogues using the technique of “clustering redshifts”.

Where were you born?
I was born in Italy, in the snowy Alps. I then moved to Milan when I was 10 years old.

Where do you live now?
In 2018 I moved to Australia, and I now live between Melbourne and Brisbane.

What do you do as part of DESI?
My research goal is to investigate possible modifications to the current theory of gravity (General Relativity). From an observational viewpoint, these modifications can be tested by measuring the relative effect of gravity on light (that is, on relativistic particles) and on matter (that is, on galaxy positions). My plan is to combine the three-dimensional distribution of galaxies mapped by DESI with the weak lensing measurements provided by surveys such as the Dark Energy Survey (DES).

What is the most interesting or exciting thing about your job?
There are different aspects I enjoy of my job. In general, I love spending time learning new skillsand deepening my knowledge on various topics.

Any advice for an aspiring scientist?
Be curious and find good mentors!

What do you do for fun?
I am a very active person. I love the ocean and the mountains. I enjoy surfing, hiking, op-shopping, visiting art galleries and baking. I miss the snow very much. I started skiing when I was two years old and won my first gold medal at the age of six.

If you weren’t a scientist, what would be your dream job?
I always wanted to be a journalist or a writer. I love art and literature, especially Italian literature. When I was 17 I started working for a local newspaper, but then quit to study physics two years later.

What excites/interests you most about DESI?
At the moment, I am very excited to see what dark questions we will be answering with the upcoming DESI data!

What is your position or role in the DESI project?
I am a member of the Data Management team with primary responsibility for data transfer and archiving.  This includes the transfer of raw data from Kitt Peak to NERSC, as well as transfers and backups of reduced data.

Where were you born?
Dayton, Ohio, USA.

Where do you live now?
Tucson, Arizona, USA.

What do you do as part of DESI?
The role of data archiving requires very careful thought about how data will be accessed and used by the collaboration and the general public. In order to maximize utility and minimize potential confusion, strict quality standards need to be applied to data, code and documentation.  Many of these quality standards can be enforced by automation, and I also advise other collaborators on simple ways they can ensure quality from the outset.

What is the most interesting or exciting thing about your job?
I would say on-mountain observing, but that hasn’t been possible for a very long time.  That’s unfortunate because the experience of actually working at (in?) a telescope is valuable as well as exciting. Another interesting aspect is following developments in the wider fields of supercomputing, storage, programming and other advanced information technology fields, and sharing that experience with NOIRLab and DESI.

Any advice for an aspiring scientist?
Travel. The current state of affairs is just a phase, and society will realize the importance of travel again. For now, pay for it yourself if you have to, but get out there into the whole world. You can’t taste the food over Zoom.

What do you do for fun?
Hiking, biking, reading, running, enjoying the cuisine of Tucson, a World City of Gastronomy.

If you weren’t a scientist, what would be your dream job?
Cocktail mixologist.

What excites/interests you most about DESI?
DESI is building on the success of a great team of scientists and engineers, many of whom worked for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). It is always a privilege and a pleasant experience to continue working with this team. Considering the astonishing breadth of results from SDSS, the scientific possibilities of DESI are mind-blowing.

What is your position or role in the DESI project?
I am currently a co-convener of the DESI Year 1 BAO Key Project.

Where were you born?
Busan, South Korea

Where do you live now?
I live in Athens, Ohio, a small college town. This year, though, I am living in Berkeley, California, for my sabbatical leave. I am super excited.

What do you do as part of DESI?
My postdocs, students, and I are members of the galaxy—quasar clustering working group and our focus is on how to better reconstruct the cosmological information in the distribution of the galaxies, part of which has been lost during the evolution of the Universe for the last 13.8 billion years. We are also working on how to best clean up the observational systematics from the data using a deep learning method.

As a co-convener of the Year 1 BAO Key project (aka Key Project 4), I and many KP4 participants together are working on robustly deriving the DESI Year 1 BAO measurement. We expect the first year DESI data alone to produce the best BAO measurement to date, and therefore it requires a much more stringent systematic control than has been ever done.

What is the most interesting or exciting thing about your job?
What can be more exciting than learning about our Universe? 🙂

Any advice for an aspiring scientist?
Do what you like the most (but I am 99.99% sure that whoever reading this already like astrophysics very much). And the postdoc time is the best time (so, keep swimming).

What do you do for fun?
Learning new things such as piano, kick-boxing, and ballet.

If you weren’t a scientist, what would be your dream job?
This job was my dream job. My alternative dream job was a cartoonist (I had good talent on this, except that I could not redraw the same character more than once).

What excites/interests you most about DESI?
This is the best galaxy survey data today and also I very much appreciate and enjoy the collaborative environment of DESI. Working with people across the world to solve a common question brings you some exciting moments from time to time.

What is your position or role in the DESI project?
After co-chairing the Lyman alpha WG for several years, I am now co-convener of Key Project 6. We plan to measure BAO above redshift 2 from the correlations of the Lyman alpha forest, and its cross-correlation with the quasars themselves.

Where were you born?
I was born in Barcelona.

Where do you live now?
Finally, I am back to Barcelona after 9 years of wandering around the globe.

What do you do as part of DESI?
Besides coordinating the BAO measurement of KP6, I like to study the distribution of matter on Megaparsec scales using the Lyman alpha forest, and compare the measurements to hydrodynamical simulations.

What is the most interesting or exciting thing about your job?
I like working on puzzles, like a difficult Sudoku or the accelerated expansion of the Universe.

Any advice for an aspiring scientist?
Being a scientist is fun, but there are other cool jobs out there. So give it a good shot, but don’t get too obsessed about it.

What do you do for fun?
I like playing sports (climbing, tennis, football) and I love trying new food and beers.

If you weren’t a scientist, what would be your dream job?
I’d like to understand the chemistry of cooking. I know, I’d still be a scientist, but a very different one!

What excites/interests you most about DESI?
I like being part of a large collaboration, seeing lots of creative people working together to achieve these very complex and exciting measurements.

What is your position or role in the DESI project?
I’m a postdoctoral fellow who works mostly in the Clustering, Clusters, and Cross-correlation as well as the Galaxy and Quasar Clustering working groups.

Where were you born and where do you live now?
I was born in Fremont, California, and have lived my entire life in various parts of the San Francisco Bay Area. I currently live in Oakland, and work at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which sits just up the hill from UC Berkeley’s campus.

What do you do as part of DESI?
I run computer simulations of how structure in the universe forms assuming different scenarios for what the universe is made of, and then compare those simulations to the data that DESI is taking. In doing so, we can learn about the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy. The hard part of my work is figuring out how to compare my simulations, which are highly idealized, to the highly complex data that DESI gathers. One challenge related to this is that my simulations include only dark matter, while the galaxies that DESI is observing are composed of luminous matter, like us. This is a very fun problem to tackle, as it involves building models for the connection between dark and luminous matter. On any given day, I use a combination of high-performance computing, statistical techniques and analytic theory to make progress on these problems.

What is the most interesting or exciting thing about your job?
I love how many different fields of science and technology I get to use in order to solve problems. Some days my work is entirely computer programming, others I get to work on fun statistical problems, and others still are spent reading technical physics theory papers and working out derivations of my own. I also truly enjoy collaborating with and learning from a broad range of colleagues who all bring their own expertise and perspectives.

Any advice for an aspiring scientist/engineer?
My advice is two-fold: First of all, pursue your passion. I have found that I am far more effective at working on something whose goals I believe in wholeheartedly. Intrinsic motivation is so much more powerful than extrinsic pressure to perform. In order to find intrinsic motivation, it’s very important to maintain an open and curious mind. Sometimes the things that are most interesting can take you by surprise. Secondly, learn as much math and programming as possible. These skills are necessary for virtually all science and technology, and so by learning as much of them as possible, you will open many doors for yourself.

What do you do for fun?
I love the outdoors. The San Francisco Bay Area, with its hilly topography, is a great place for road biking. I also enjoy backpacking and skiing in the nearby Sierra Nevada mountains. I’ve played basketball for my entire life and while I don’t play much anymore due to various accumulated injuries, I am still a big fan of the local professional basketball team, the Golden State Warriors.

What is your position or role in the DESI project?
I have being working in different working groups and participating in different tasks since 2015. Now I am mainly involved in the galaxy clustering and Cosmo Simulation working groups, but some time ago also contributed to some tasks of C3. Since 2019, I am co-leading the DESI Mock Challenge with Shadab Alam and Albert Chuang. I am leading the Mock Challenge in Reconstruction and Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations. Also, I am currently the chair of the meetings committee and I participate in the DEI committee as the liaison with the meetings committee but also because I am interested in inclusiveness and equity in academy.

Where were you born and where do you live now?
I was born in Mexico City. I did my bachelor’s in Facultad de Ciencias UNAM. Then I did my graduate studies in France (Universite Paris-XI and then Universite Paris VII in Laboratory APC). After finishing my studies I moved to the US in Pittsburgh, where I did a post-doctoral position in Mc William Center of Cosmology at Carnegie Mellon University. Then I came back to Mexico City where I am in a tenure track position for the past 7 years at Instituto de Fisica at UNAM.

What do you do as part of DESI?
I am working on the main observables of DESI: BAO and RSD. I am now co-leading the Mock Challenge and in particular I’m coordinating the Mock Challenge of Reconstruction and BAO. Currently I am focused on working on the publications that summarize two years of this effort. I am also helping in the preparation of SV3 mocks, in particular applying the FA to those mocks with the footprint of Year 1. I am also co-advising several students of our group of Observational Cosmology at UNAM to participate in DESI. For the last 2 years I worked with a masters student on the effects of Fiber Assignment with simulations and exploring mitigation techniques with LRG, and now working on the pipeline to apply the fiber assigning to mocks. I am currently co-advising a graduate student for participating in the RSD mock Challenge and another graduate student participating in the BAO mock Challenge. Also, I am working with another graduate student on the generation of simulations with non Gaussianities and their analysis in the context of DESI. Another student of our group is working on the effect of massive neutrinos in the large scale structure with the goal to apply this to DESI and potentially 2 more students will start soon as well to work on another project related to forward reconstruction in the context of DESI.

What is the most interesting or exciting thing about your job?
I really enjoy working within collaborations, I’m very happy to be able to discuss with experts in the field weekly I consider there is a lot of interaction and community feeling. I like the possibility to meet people from different parts of the world and different experience and expertise. I grown within these large collaborations my whole academic life, for me, the collaboration is like my academic family. I learned from the experts when I was a graduate student in the BOSS times, then I became a postdoc and I continued working and learning in the context of BOSS. I increased my network of collaborators thanks to the constant interaction within the collaborations as a postdoc. Now as a junior assistant professor I am trying to transmit my knowledge acquired over the years and potentiate the development of the early career scientist and also continue learning as a medium career scientist I consider myself.

Any advice for an aspiring scientist/engineer?
Collaborate with others, science is a collaborative effort. Collaborations are a great environment to learn and interact with experts all over the world, profit of this network of experts, ask as many questions as you want, scientist are always learning, do not be shy or be shamed of asking questions, join projects, try new ideas, have fun with research now and worry less about the future, you will define your way as you walk through it. Open all the possibilities and never close a door.

What do you do for fun?
I like to practice yoga and dance. I also like biking, hiking in the mountains and running. I started boxing lessons recently, and zumba but also I am trying to go the gym more often. When I have time I like to cook, and garden. I also have a violin and I would like to learn how to play it one day, I like to sing but I am not that good (it seems). I also have two big dogs always willing to play and walk the streets of the busy Mexico City.

What is your position or role in the DESI project?
I’m a postdoc at the University of Utah. My formal DESI role is chair of the collaboration’s Education and Public Outreach committee.

Where were you born and where do you live now?
I was born and grew up in Portland, Oregon. I now live in Salt Lake City, Utah, but before that I called California home for over 15 years.

What do you do as part of DESI?
Primarily I work on creating mock galaxy catalogs for characterizing the DESI luminous red galaxy (LRG) sample and (hopefully) improving models of small-scale galaxy clustering. I also did a lot of visual inspection of LRG spectra in preparation for the main survey, and do the occasional remote observing shift as a Support Observer. A big part of my role on the collaboration’s Education and Public Outreach committee is updating the public DESI website (where you’re reading this now!). I’m starting to work on the pages that will announce DESI science results and data releases as they become available.

What is the most interesting or exciting thing about your job?
The data I use in my research comes from light that has traveled halfway across the observable Universe (OK, not quite that far, but still astounding!). I’m continually amazed that humanity can unravel the history of the cosmos itself with just ancient photons that survive the journey to our telescopes. We’re such a tiny speck in an incomprehensibly vast universe that it doesn’t seem it should be possible, but it is!

Any advice for an aspiring scientist?
There isn’t one right path you must take to become a professional scientist. College was challenging for me, so much so that I didn’t apply to graduate school right away. Even though I’d wanted to be an astrophysicist ever since I learned that’s an actual job, college left me seriously questioning whether I had what it takes to succeed in grad school. It was several years before I rediscovered the resolve to apply and built up the experience to craft a successful application.

Also, while easier said than done, don’t be intimidated by what you don’t yet understand or the skills you don’t yet have.

What do you do for fun?
I like to cook and bake, “train” for half marathons, and explore the abundant natural beauty surrounding Salt Lake City. Occasionally I even find time to work on my latest craft project: a cross-stitch of a spiral galaxy that I started over two years ago. If I thought I could make a living at it, I would be an artist who focuses on abstract geometric sculptures.

What is your position or role in the DESI project?
I am a graduate student at UC Irvine working toward my PhD. In DESI, I am part of the Lyman-alpha Forest working group and I am one of the Lyman-alpha quasar catalog co-leads. I am also part of the DESI mentoring program as both a mentor and a mentee.

Where were you born and where do you live now?
I grew up in Center Line and Warren in the metro-Detroit area of southeast Michigan, and I did my undergrad at Wayne State University in Detroit. I now live in Irvine in Southern California. Sometimes I miss having seasons and snow but my recent trip to Michigan brought me back to reality.

What do you do as a part of DESI?
I recently started a project to study the impact of quasar redshift errors on the 3D cross-correlation of quasars with the Lyman-alpha Forest. As one of the quasar catalog co-leads I am helping to put together a quasar catalog that will be used for future Lyman-alpha science analyses. I am also interested in using these quasars to study baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO). Previously, I helped out with commissioning by looking at GFA calibration data, and I’m hoping to get more involved with the focal plane team in the future. I’ve also done some observing shifts in the past, and am looking forward to more shifts in the future!

What is the most interesting or exciting thing about your job?
As a graduate student, I am always learning new things. Being a part of a collaboration like DESI also means that I get to travel, meet people, and make friends from all over the world! I always thought my career path would be pretty straightforward: get my PhD, do a postdoc, get a job at a university. I’ve learned though, that there are so many different opportunities and different paths I could take within astronomy/astrophysics that don’t necessarily involve teaching and are all very interesting. Good thing I’ve got a few years before I really need to decide!

Any advice for an aspiring scientist/engineer?
There is a lot of great advice from other DESI members but one thing I think is extremely important is that you don’t have to do science 24/7 to be a great scientist! It’s very important to set boundaries and take breaks to find and maintain a good work/life balance. Some people enjoy using their free time to work, others don’t, and both are okay! You have to find the right balance for you. Also never be afraid to ask questions as there is no such thing as a dumb question! A tip: if you don’t want to ask in front of other people you can usually ask your questions in an email after the talk or lecture. Finally, learn to code.

What do you do for fun?
Outside of DESI and my PhD I enjoy spending time with my friends and family. I love going to hockey games, especially when the Detroit Red Wings come to town. I try to watch every game when they’re not in town. Within the last year or so I’ve taught myself to crochet and I am currently trying to teach myself to knit. I also like to build puzzles, play video games, complete paint by numbers, and I’m hoping to start baking more in the upcoming year.

What is your position or role in the DESI project?
I am currently a postdoctoral fellow at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which is an institutional member of DESI. In terms of my role within DESI, I’m an active member of the c3 working group and one of the co-organizers of the galaxy cluster analysis within c3. I also served as a member of the secondary target selection review committee for the DESI SV and Y1 data.

Where were you born? Where do you live now?
I grew up in Saratoga Springs, NY. I did my undergrad at Brown University and my Ph.D. at the University of Michigan. I’m currently living in Shanghai, China, where I work at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

What do you do as part of DESI?
I am working with DESI data to study galaxy evolution within cluster environments. The first of these projects is constructing a complete sample of SDSS-redMaPPer clusters from DESI observations to understand projection effects on cluster membership. The second is a study of the stellar outskirts of massive galaxies using DECaLS data as a proxy for identifying clusters. Additionally, I’m participating in the remote observing effort for DESI, which I’m very excited to do!

What is the most interesting or exciting thing about your job?
I love that Astronomy allows me to ask and investigate the big questions. As much of my research is related to galaxy evolution, I love exploring the past to look at massive galaxies at different points in cosmic time in order to understand the physical scenarios that have led to the observations that we currently see. Because Astronomers don’t have the ability to watch individual galaxies change over time, I really enjoy using our snapshot images of different galaxies to construct a rough evolutionary pathway to estimate how massive galaxies evolve.

Any advice for an aspiring scientist?
Make sure to find good and supportive mentors. Especially in graduate school, it’s very important that you find a mentor that you can work well with and who supports you both as a person and as a scientist. From my experience, it’s incredibly important to build a network of mentors and collaborators that you can go to for help and advice, whether it’s research advice, job advice, or life advice. I think it’s also important to remember that these mentors don’t have to be located at the same University you are or work in the same sub-field of Astronomy that you are working in.

What do you do for fun?
When I’m not working on the many different astronomy projects that I’m currently involved in, I enjoy running in different parts of Shanghai, reading comic books and manga, and cooking delicious vegan food and baked goods!

What is your position or role in the DESI project?
I am currently a third year graduate student at Stanford leading analysis on the DESI LOWZ Secondary Target Survey.

Where were you born? Where do you live now?
I was raised in Marin County in California and am currently living in Palo Alto.

What do you do as part of DESI?
I mainly work on analysis for the LOWZ survey. I am interested in understanding the properties and histories of nearby low redshift dwarf galaxies. I have worked on the survey since its conception, through the process of target selection, and am now heading the analysis of the SV3 and early main survey data. I am interested in how nearby dwarf galaxies can help us understand the formation histories of dwarf galaxies within the Milky Way.

What is the most interesting or exciting thing about your job?
I enjoy the problem solving aspect of computational astrophysics. I like the process of going from a project’s conception to understanding how to efficiently implement the analysis in code. I also like the intimacy of low redshift analysis where I can come to know the objects I work with as individuals. Lastly, I have always deeply valued the social aspects of science. Getting to collaborate and just hang out with my colleagues at all career stages is always a daily highpoint.

Any advice for an aspiring scientist?
Have fun! As a scientist, it is easy to get caught up in the stress about your performance, knowledge, or career advancement. While these aspects all matter, they can easily overshadow the reasons one gets in to science in the first place—a desire for knowledge and curiosity about the world. Remember to take time to reflect on how awesome the work you are doing is. Contributing to the project of human exploration is valuable, even if you are just an elementary school student working on your first science experiment. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you that you are not good enough, and strive to find people who remind you why you love science rather than make you feel like you don’t belong.

What do you do for fun?
For fun I enjoy cooking, writing, and drawing. I also love hanging out with close friends over good food and good wine surrounded by interesting conversations. I am an avid consumer of podcasts and leftist YouTube channels and love learning about topics outside of astrophysics from literature to history. I am currently supplementing my graduate school course load with an excellent course on Victorian poetry. Before COVID, I also enjoyed going out to see live theater in the Bay Area.

What is your role in the DESI project?
I’m a post-doc mainly involved in GQC working group.

Where were you born? Where do you live now? 
I was born in Seoul, Korea and currently living in Shanghai, China for my post-doc position at SJTU.

What would you say is the most interesting or exciting thing about DESI?
One of the most interesting thing about DESI for me is to experience the pipeline for processing spectroscopic data. Before joining DESI, ‘data’ were just some binary files to me consisting of many columns including RA, DEC, z, and some weights. But, after joining DESI, I had many chances to learn about how raw data are processed in the pipelines before arriving at my hands. For example, participating in visual inspection and working on fiber assignment are the ones where I can experience some part of the raw data process.

Any advice for aspiring scientists?
Either failure or success, it can be a stepping stone for the next step.

Finally, what do you do for fun?
Reading books. Rather than reading fast, I prefer slow reading and enjoying each line, which makes me feel like having conversation with author. And, recently, (I’m not sure if I should say “because of“ or “thanks to” COVID19, but anyway) I started a couple of online book clubs with some old friends. After reading one chapter of the same book every week or every two weeks, we regularly meet online and discuss anything related to the chapter. You may want to try this as well. It is really fun!

What is your position or role in the DESI project?
Executive Coordinator for NSF’s NOIRLab Mid-Scale Observatories / Kitt Peak Directors office.

Where were you born?
Florida

Where do you live now?
Tucson, Arizona

What do you do as part of DESI?
I provide administrative support including planning of DESI reviews and collaboration meetings, logistics, lodging and safety support along with procuring miscellaneous supplies as needed for the Kitt Peak DESI team.

What is the most interesting or exciting thing about your job?
The most interesting thing is interacting with people of all cultures, backgrounds and skill sets. I feel very honored and privileged to be able to work on the beautiful, magical Tohono O’odham land.

What do you do for fun?
I enjoy remote camping and exploring the deserts and forests of Arizona with my husband and three (adult!) kids.

What is your role in the DESI project?
I’m involved in the Milky Way Survey, where I contribute to the target selection and the definition of the Backup program, currently lead the MWS Visual Inspection efforts, and help out as a DESI observer. One of my roles was to work on the target selection of white dwarfs, which DESI is observing as secondary flux standards (white dwarfs are usually very blue, and have relatively simple and well understood spectra. Well, most of them).  Within DESI, I’m probably the person with the lowest redshift: my science interests are stars in the solar neighborhood, in particular within 100pc.

Where were you born? Where do you live now? What are the interesting places that standout that your work has taken you to?
I was born and grew up in Berlin. One of the first questions I get asked is “which part”: West Berlin. During the cold war, it was pretty much the same as living on an island. Now I’m settled in the Midlands in the UK, which are very beautiful. That is, once the Sun comes out. I love being at observatories. All of them. Each and every one of them is very different: The views over the Arizona desert from Kitt Peak are just stunning (and their food is very nice).  Paranal is the true definition of desert, and the platform with four VLTs, one of them firing a quad AO laser, seems straight out of a science fiction movie. La Palma has some of the most varied landscapes (words can’t capture what it feels being on the rim of the Caldera). And being chased by wild boars in a moonless night at Calar Alto stands out as a memory.

What would you say is the most interesting or exciting thing about your job?
Three very different aspects come to my mind. I really enjoy working together with so many amazing people from all over the world and of all ages, that have such an enormous range of skills and knowledge. Thanks to them, I learn something new every day.  Then there is the huge satisfaction of answering a scientific question, pushing the boundary of our knowledge just that one step further. And finally, the day-to-day work is just great fun. I’m a data junkie, and with the rapidly growing number of ground and space-based photometric and spectroscopic surveys, there is no end to discovering new exciting things out there in the Universe.

Any advice for aspiring scientists?
Find out what you are good at, sharpen those skills, and then make good and constant use of them. Just like you would do when learning to play an instrument, or practice some sport. Keep questioning the things you think you know. Read a lot of papers and listen to a lot of talks spanning a wide range of topics. Look out for that odd small inconsistency in your data (or equations), turn it into a question, and then try to find an answer.

Finally, what do you do for fun?
Hey, astronomy is a lot of fun. But so is cycling, climbing, cooking, traveling, and spending time with friends and family.

What is your position or role in the DESI project?
I am a third year PhD student at Durham University, working on red quasars within the Galaxy Quasar Physics working group. Quasars are high redshift objects that tend to be very blue, but there is a small but important subset that show much redder colours (“red quasars”). Our group at Durham are very interested in these red quasars because we have found fundamental differences in the radio properties of red quasars, compared to their blue counterparts. We are excited to explore reddened quasars within DESI.

Where were you born?
I was born in Yorkshire in the UK, but grew up down South in in Berkshire so never got the accent!

Where do you live now?
I now live in Durham UK, close to the University. Durham is a beautiful city and I love walking by the river.

What do you as part of DESI? 
Within DESI I am studying the diversity of quasars and in particular dust-reddened quasars. I have a secondary target program that has been targeting reddened quasars that may have otherwise been missed by the nominal QSO selection. I am also a member of the ECS committee within DESI. The ECS committee organises monthly ECS meetings and plans pre-meeting ECS activities such as networking events and data tutorials.

What is the most interesting or exciting thing about DESI ?
I love being connected to people within the collaboration from all over the world. I have already learnt so much from being part of DESI and have met so many interesting people. In my work I enjoy exploring new datasets, trying to make connections and understanding new results. I particularly enjoy looking at different exotic quasar systems that DESI has been observing such as broad absorption line quasars and reddened quasars.

Any advice for an aspiring scientist?
Never give up and never think you are not good enough. Sometimes you might wonder whether there is an easier path than academia, but ask yourself if there is anything as enjoyable as exploring the Universe!

What do you do for fun?
I like going to the pub with my friends—and Durham is not short on great pubs! I also enjoy giving public science talks and going to music festivals.