Project Manager’s Reflections

Don Sweeney

As I prepare for the April face to face meeting of the LSST Board, it occurs to me how much the project has grown since I became manager six year ago. At that time, there were only four member organizations. Our Board meetings fit into the smallest of conference rooms. Today there are 28 members and Board meetings require careful advance planning. When I first started work in Tucson I had to move around from office to office before I found a permanent home. We had no NSF or DOE funding for design and development. Thankfully Research Corporation (now Research Corporation for Science Advancement) provided that initial seed funding to get us going. Today the LSST Corporation (LSSTC) budget is over $10M/year in design and development as we get ready for construction. We also spend millions more in long-lead items such as the telescope mirrors. The mirror funding is made possible by generous private support that seemed unattainable six years ago. The ten LSST science collaborations have just under 250 members and the technical engineering teams number about 100 staff members.

With all of the growth and enthusiasm for the LSST has come the added complication of managing a project that is both big and distributed. We have major activities centered in such diverse locations as Washington, California, Tucson, New York, Illinois, and Massachusetts. Now a number of scientific and engineering laboratories in France are becoming active. Of course, the final location for the LSST will be Chile, so our activity there is ramping up quickly.

The key to success of the technical oversight of the project has been the outstanding work of the managers of various technical teams: Victor Krabbendam for Telescope and Site, Jeff Kantor for Data Management, and Kirk Gilmore for Camera. Of course Suzanne Jacoby plays a huge role wearing multiple hats for management of Education and Public Outreach as well as handling all of our public relations.

We’ve also grown recently with the addition of Daniel Calabrese, the new LSSTC Business Administrator. One of Daniel’s first tasks was to assemble our business certification package for the NSF. That certification will allow the LSSTC to receive the hundreds of millions of federal dollars necessary to construct the LSST observatory.

The scientific, technical and administrative staff that make the LSST project a success are far too numerous to mention here. Their capability and reliability all make my job possible.

Mostly though the growth has come because of the general excitement around the LSST and the contributions it will make to science. It’s been my great pleasure to both watch and be part of this great enterprise. The management of the project may have made for some extended travel but it’s all worth it. I expect the next six years to be just as exciting.