Collaboration Affairs

1994 Collaboration meeting at YerkesThe Collaboration consists of about 150 scientists at the Participating Institutions. Its membership also includes scientists from non-participating institutions who have earned data access through their contributions to SDSS infrastructure. In addition its membership includes external collaborators who provide expertise on specific projects. The size of the Collaboration is about 200 Ph.D. scientists.

The Collaboration provides an opportunity for its members to exchange information and ideas freely, thereby assisting the pursuit of their individual research goals. Collaboration Affairs is the organization for accomplishing these goals. Collaboration Affairs consists of the Collaboration Council, the Working Groups, and the Publications Office.

The Collaboration is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium and the SDSS Directorate (more information about the SDSS collaboration's management structure). Information about the way the survey was conducted, including documents related to operations, progress reports, and external reviews, is available at Survey Operations.

Scientific Spokesperson

The Director has delegated the management of Collaboration Affairs to the Scientific Spokesperson. He has also delegated to the Spokesperson the primary responsibilities for representing the Survey to the scientific community and for raising the visibility of the Survey within the astronomy and physics communities.

Collaboration Council

The Spokesperson has established a Collaboration Council (CoCo) to help manage the affairs of the collaboration. It includes a formal channel to the Director and the Advisory Council for addressing the issues of the Collaboration that requires their action. The CoCo consists of one representative from each SDSS institution, and one At Large member to represent the external participants. Each SDSS institutional representative to CoCo is appointed by its scientific member of the Advisory Council. The At Large member is chosen by the Spokesperson in consultation with the CoCo. The Chair of the CoCo is appointed by the Spokesperson and reports to the Spokesperson. The CoCo provides advice on all Collaboration matters to the Spokesperson including recommendations for policies on publications, scientific representation, and science projects.

The CoCo is responsible for reviewing proposals for science projects which include external collaborators, scientists who may be given limited access to SDSS data for specific projects.

Contact the Collaboration Council via email "coco (at symbol) coltrane.uchicago.edu".

The institutional representatives to the Collaboration Council are:
American Museum of Natural History Mike Shara
University of Basel Bruno Binggeli
Cambridge University Dan Zucker
Case Western Reserve University Idit Zehavi
University of Chicago Josh Frieman
Drexel University Gordon Richards
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Douglas Tucker
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Zheng Zheng
Japan Participation Group Mamoru Doi
Johns Hopkins University Ani Thakar
Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics
 Michigan State/Notre Dame/Chicago
Tim Beers
Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology
 Stanford/SLAC
Roger Romani
Korean Scientist Group Myeong-Gu Park
LAMOST Yongheng Zhao
Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam Ralf-Dieter Scholz
Los Alamos National Laboratory Salman Habib
Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy/Heidelberg Eric Bell
Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics/Garching Guinevere Kauffmann
New Mexico State University Nicole Vogt
Ohio State University David Weinberg
University of Pittsburgh Andy Connolly
University of Portsmouth Bob Nichol
Princeton University Jill Knapp
US Naval Observatory Jeff Munn
University of Washington Julianne Dalcanton
External Participants Daniel Eisenstein

Working Groups and Key Projects

Working Groups have been formed to address the following specific topics:

  • large scale structure
  • clusters
  • galaxies
  • quasars
  • stars
  • serendipity
  • southern survey
  • reddening
  • solar system
One function of these Working Groups is to define Key Projects which together define the Core Program of the SDSS.

The WG's are to consider the complete flow of data relevant to each WG from the CCD's through calibration to final publication. The WG's will assist the Director in defining scientific requirements for equipment, observing time, calibration and analysis software, and data storage and distribution. These requirements will be considered by the Project Scientist in formulating recommendations to the Director in the same categories.

Each WG Chair is appointed by the Director for a fixed term. New WG's may be formed and existing WG's may be disbanded only after approval of a written plan by the Director.

Related SDSS Collaboration Links