Scialog: Early Science with the LSST

Scialog: Early Science with the LSST is a fellowship grant from Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) that supports early-career faculty conducting cross-disciplinary research to advance the science potential of the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), carried out by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

The program connects approximately 50 fellows from fields including observational astronomy, cosmology, theoretical physics, astrophysics, computational modeling, data science, and software engineering to catalyze collaborative projects. Each fellow receives $60,000 in seed funding. Eligible applicants are early-career faculty ranging from their first year on faculty to recently post-tenure.

Applications for the 2026 meeting are open through May 12, 2026. The program is facilitated by approximately 10 senior scientists who guide discussions and assess collaborative proposals.

Early Science with the LSST – Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) Early Science with the LSST Scientists have been preparing for more than a decade to analyze data from the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), which is expected to be carried out by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory starting in late 2024.

This open-access dataset will be higher in volume, velocity, and complexity than any previous astrophysics experiment and could spark an extraordinary era of discovery into fundamental questions about the Universe, but capability gaps could severely limit the science that can be done.

This Scialog series aims to mitigate two impediments to realizing the full scientific potential of LSST: the lack of seed funding to ignite early LSST discoveries with these data, and the critical need to create the cross-disciplinary connections required to tackle the biggest questions LSST is poised to address.

This Scialog will facilitate connections between approximately 50 early career observational astronomers, cosmologists, theoretical physicists and astrophysicists, computational modelers, data scientists, and software engineers, with the goal of catalyzing collaborative projects that will advance the early science needed to make the most of a dataset enabled by one of the most powerful observational machines ever built.

Applications to participate in the 2026 meeting are open and will be considered until May 12, 2026. About 50 early career faculty will be invited as Fellows, ranging from their first year on faculty to recently post-tenure. Around 10 senior scientists will act as Facilitators to outline major questions, guide discussions, and assess proposals.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Carnegie Institution for Science University of California, San Diego Astronomy and Astrophysics University of Minnesota Twin Cities Washington University in St.

Louis Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research Massachusetts Institute of Technology University of Maryland, College Park Aerospace Engineering / Astronomy University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign California Institute of Technology Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics University of Maryland, Baltimore County University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign University of Southern California University of Washington & NOIRLab CITEVA – Centro de Astronomía Universidad de Antofagasta, Chile Nuclear and Chemical Sciences Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Universidad de Concepción University of California, Berkeley University of Pennsylvania University of Minnesota Twin Cities Rutgers University – New Brunswick University of Texas at Austin Carnegie Mellon University University of California, San Diego University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Michigan State University University of California, San Diego Indiana University Bloomington University of Washington and LSST Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics American Museum of Natural History New York University and Flatiron Institute University of California, Santa Cruz Columbia University and LSST Discovery Alliance Goal: to advance the foundational science needed to realize the full potential of the Vera C.

Rubin Observatory’s upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time. IMBH in the LMC?

A Hypervelocity Star Survey with LSST University of California, Berkeley Carnegie Institution for Science California Institute of Technology Not So Heavy Metal: An Enhanced Rate of SLSNe at Cosmic Noon University of Minnesota Twin Cities White Dwarf Companions as Brown Dwarf Chronometers California Institute of Technology University of Texas at Austin Rubin LSST as a Multi-Wavelength Discovery Engine for Relativistic Transients University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University of Pennsylvania A Unified Model of Stellar Systems in LSST-Y1 for Dark Matter Inference University of Southern California Multimessenger Transients in AGN Disks Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics Dwarf Debris and Dark Matter: Searching for Evidence of Hierarchical Formation in the Stellar Halos of Dwarf Galaxies Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College Towards a Census of Dual AGN Across Cosmic Time University of Maryland, Baltimore County Chasing the First Explosions from BH* with LSST University of California, Berkeley Democracy Now: Accessible and Rapid Alerts for the Astronomical Community University of Minnesota Twin Cities University of Pennsylvania Rutgers University – New Brunswick Tiny Galaxies, Big Waves: Discovering the First Dwarf Binary AGN Using Early Rubin Data Carnegie Mellon University Measuring Metallicities of RRLs in the Milky Way Vicinity CITEVA – Centro de Astronomía Universidad de Antofagasta, Chile The Impact of the 12C(a,g)16O Reaction Rate on LSST White Dwarfs Nuclear and Chemical Sciences Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Unveiling High-Redshift Tidal Disruption Events in Rubin LSST Data University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Loews Ventana Canyon Resort 2024 Scialog LSST Conference Booklet 2025 Scialog LSST Conference Booklet