thedepartmentofastronomyandastrophysicsmeton22.docVIP

UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA, SANTA CRUZ UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA OBSERVATORIES Michael Bolte 375 INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES BUILDING Interim Director SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA 95064 (831) 459-2991 bolte@ucolick.org 12 April, 2006 The David and Lucile Packard Foundation 300 Second Street, Suite 200 Los Altos, California 94022 Members of the Packard Fellowship Selection Committee, On behalf of the University of California Observatories and the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, we are delighted to put Dr. Connie Rockosi forward as a candidate for a Packard Fellowship. Dr. Rockosi is an outstanding young astrophysicist who is particularly gifted and accomplished as an instrument designer and builder. Although she is at an early stage of her career, she has already established a remarkable record as a scientific and technical leader of three very ambitious programs in ground-based astronomy. As has been the case for most great instrument builders, Dr. Rockosi’s motivation for her design work is to provide new and innovative capabilities to carry out her own scientific research(the reconstruction of the formation history and evolution of the Galaxy. While still a graduate student, Dr. Rockosi became well known to the astronomical community as a key member of the small team of scientists and engineers that designed, built, commissioned and carried out the initial science programs for the imaging camera for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). At completion, this was the most ambitious astronomical camera ever made. The spectacular success of the SDSS in produ