* Free, public seminar — all welcome *
 

Abstract

NCSA has a significant role in supporting large scale optical astronomy surveys including the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). The Dark Energy Survey is entering its sixth year of surveying and will produce its final results in 2021, which is approximately the time that the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will begin operations.

This talk will present our experience organising for, and executing our responsibilities, which include elements of data acquisition, bulk processing and serving large data releases to the general public.
 

Speaker bio's

Donald Petravick

Don Petravick is Senior Project Manager of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and local Prinicipal Investigator for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) at NCSA.

He has extensive experience in computer security, data storage, data movement, software development, scientific computing and the facility aspects of wide area networking.

He has been with NCSA for the last eight years. He has also collaborated with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and CERN.

From 1985 to 2010, he was the Associate Head of the Computing Division at Fermilaba US particle physics and accelerator laboratory, overseeing its facilities for scientific computing.  
 

Margaret Johnson

Margaret Johnson is Assistant Director of Astronomy Core Services at NCSA.

She has been with NCSA for almost seven years, first joining in 2011 as a Research Assistant. She became a Research Scientist at NCSA in early 2012, and Assistant Director of Astronomy Core Services in October 2017.

She obtained both her Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Astronomy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where NCSA is based.

About RCC/MURPA Seminar Series

RCC and MURPA (Monash Undergraduate Research Projects Abroad) co-host an IT-focused seminar series in the second semester each year.

Speakers are leaders in their field — from either the academic world, government or industry — and are often based overseas. 

Speakers and seminar attendees at UQ and Monash University are connected via the universities' advanced videoconferencing facilities. 

The UQ location is room 505A, level 5, Axon Building (47), St Lucia Campus. Please address enquiries to Fran Moore at: rcc-admin@uq.edu.au.

The Monash University location is Lecture Theatre S3, 16  Rainforest Walk, Clayton Campus. Please address enquiries to Caitlin Slattery at: caitlin.slattery@monash.edu.

Venue

RCC seminar room (level 5), Axon Building #47 (St Lucia)
Room: 
505A