Constance M. Rockosi

Constance "Connie" M. Rockosi is a chair of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She earned her PhD in 2001 and helped design the camera for the telescope that was used as part of the initial Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). She also was in charge of the SDSS-III domain for the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration (SEGUE) project and is the primary investigator on SEGUE-II. Her focuses involve the study of the Milky Way galaxy, with a focus on the evolution that it took to reach its current state. She believes that through the study of our own galaxy, and the way that it formed, we can understand the formation of other galaxies during the Redshift phase of their creation. The purpose of her research is to explore the effects of major accretion events in the formation of the Milky Way, to understand why certain properties of the galaxy exist as they do.

Past research projects that Rockosi has worked with have focused on the mapping of the sky and the stars, to get a better understanding of star formations. Her research has continued to help her and her students understand the reasons why spiral galaxies form and exist as they do today.

She is currently absorbed in commissioning and running the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument where she is in the experiment leadership as Commissioning Scientist.