On behalf of Dr. Federica Bianco, thank you to Rubin Observatory/LSST Science Collaboration (SC) members for participating in the election of the new Science Collaboration Coordinator, Dr. Will Clarkson!
Dr. Clarkson is an Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Michigan Dearborn, the co-chair of the Stars, Milky Way and Local Volume (SMWLV) SC, and a member of Transients and Variable Stars (TVS) SC. Dr. Clarkson will begin serving jointly with the current Coordinator (Dr. Federica Bianco) on May 1st, and take on full leadership responsibilities on June 1st.
There were two amazing candidates for the position, Dr. Will Clarkson and Dr. Matthew Graham (Active Galactic Nuclei SC, Informatics and Statistics SC), and a close election. We thank Dr. Graham for his willingness to serve in this role and his ongoing commitment to the Science Collaborations organization.
The election opened on March 15th, 2022 and remained open through April 15th. 580 votes were received of the 2088 eligible votes (28% turnout). As stated in the LSST Federation Charter, the SC Coordinator is elected by the SC members, with one vote per SC. Assigning each voter to their Science Collaboration led to a tie: 4 SCs had majority votes in favor of Dr. Will Clarkson and 4 in favor of Dr. Matthew Graham. The tie was broken by averaging the fraction of votes across the Science Collaborations, which led to a 52% to 48% majority win for Dr. Clarkson.
Thank you again for your participation.