Preparing the Next Generation: Arizona Winter School Sets Stage for Roman Space Telescope Launch
As NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope approaches its anticipated fall 2026 launch, the University of Arizona Cosmology Lab is leading in preparing the next generation of scientists for this transformative mission. In January, the lab hosted a multi-probe cosmology Winter School that brought together 80 early-career researchers from around the world with some of the field's most distinguished experts.
The intensive five-day program attracted 100 applicants, with participants traveling from across the United States, Europe, South Korea, and beyond. Among the 10 lecturers were leading cosmologists and, notably, Julie McEnery, the senior project scientist for the Roman Space Telescope.
"This was probably the last school before launch," explained Tim Eifler, U of A professor of astronomy and physics and co-leader of the cosmology group for the Roman Space Telescope. "It's quite important for junior scientists who want to participate in the data analysis and get papers out of these datasets to learn all the details."
Unlike traditional conferences, the Winter School emphasized practical, hands-on learning. Each day featured 90-minute lectures from world-leading experts on topics ranging from supernovae and weak gravitational lensing to the Roman Space Telescope's science collaboration. These were followed by two-hour tutorial sessions where students could choose their focus areas and work directly with data analysis techniques.
"The lectures were structured as having hands-on tutorials on how you go from the observations to the science itself," Eifler noted. Evening discussion sessions covered topical presentations, with the opening session dedicated to an overview of the Roman Space Telescope and its science collaboration.
The program structure resonated with participants. "It was great to chat with people who have a different perspective on cosmology," said Yu-Hsiu Huang, a Cosmology Lab graduate student. "I especially appreciate the idea of having a small group join senior postdocs or faculty for lunch. It seems like a fantastic opportunity to gain valuable insights from their experiences through relaxed conversations. I also liked the discussion session when people were sharing their interpretations of recent DESI results."
Beyond technical skills, the Winter School emphasized networking and collaboration among junior scientists—connections that will prove crucial as they work with Roman's unprecedented data streams: an influx estimated to be 500 times more data each day than the Hubble Space Telescope receives.
“The Roman survey has the potential to significantly push forward our understanding of how structures form in the Universe over the next decade,” said Alexander Van Engelen, a Winter School lecturer from Arizona State University. “The significant complexity and richness of the data, though, means that the data analysis will require the dedicated efforts of large groups of researchers working together. As an instructor, I was very impressed by the dedication and inquisitiveness of the students at the school.”
"It is really exciting to see how the lecturers are passing the baton to the new generation of scientists," said Heidi Wu, a Winter School lecturer from Southern Methodist University. "The students' eagerness and the lecturers' enthusiasm are truly incredible."
Registration for the school was free for all participants, removing financial barriers and making the event accessible to a truly international cohort of early-career researchers.
The University of Arizona Cosmology Lab's involvement with Roman runs deep. The lab leads two major components of the mission, supported by approximately $4.5 million in funding over multiple years.
The team leads the kinematic weak lensing effort, a $2 million project funded over four years that will use Roman's observations to study how gravity bends light from distant galaxies, providing insights into dark matter and dark energy. Elisabeth Krause, U of A astronomy and physics professor, leads the science team for this project.
U of A also leads the cosmological parameter inference component of the Project Infrastructure Team, funded at $2.5 million over five years. This critical "last step" takes Roman's catalog of millions of precisely measured galaxies and translates that data into answers about fundamental questions: What is dark energy? What is dark matter?
The lab is also positioned to become one of the main computing hubs for the mission. The Roman project is investing approximately $500,000 in the new UA High Performance Computing system, making these resources accessible to a multi-institutional team running sophisticated analysis software.
This software infrastructure traces back to work pioneered at UA starting in 2014, later advanced to new heights by former U of A postdoc Vivian Miranda, who now serves as faculty at Stony Brook University. The tools developed over the past decade now form the core of Roman's cosmological inference capabilities.
When Roman launches—potentially as early as September 2026—it will revolutionize our view of the universe. With a field of view 200 times greater than Hubble's infrared camera and capable of working 100 times faster on large-area surveys, Roman will observe billions of galaxies during its primary mission. In its first five years alone, Roman is expected to discover hundreds of millions of stars and more than 100,000 distant worlds.
For the University of Arizona Cosmology Lab, the Winter School represented both a culmination of years of preparation and a beginning: the early-career scientists who attended will help unlock Roman's discoveries when the mission launches.
As the Winter School participants returned to their home institutions, they left with new skills and a shared sense of purpose. They are preparing to analyze data from a telescope that will, as Julie McEnery notes, help answer some of our most profound questions about the cosmos—and they're doing it together, building the collaborative networks that will define the future of cosmology.
