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Leadership

Las Cumbres Observatory is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to advancing worldwide understanding of the universe through science with its global telescope network.

Lars Bildsten, Chair, Board of Directors

Lars Bildsten is the Director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at UC Santa Barbara. Prof. Bildsten is an astrophysicist who specializes in the structure and evolution of stars. He was awarded the 2017 Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics in recognition of his fundamental work “into the physics of stellar structure and evolution, compact objects and stellar explosions.”

Lars Bildsten, President, Board of Directors

Dorothy Largay, Secretary & Treasurer, Board of Directors

Dorothy Largay is Founder and CEO of Linked Foundation and a pioneer in using philanthropy to create new ways to solve critical health needs of women and their families. In 2015 she was awarded the Rock Star: Life Achievement Award by the Spirit of Entrepreneurship Foundation in recognition of her career as a management consultant specializing in leadership and organizational development.

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Wayne Rosing, Founder & Director

Wayne Rosing founded Las Cumbres Observatory in 2005 following a long career in engineering and technology. He worked at Digital Equipment Company and Data General in the 1970s and became director of engineering at Apple Computer in 1980. From 2001 to 2005, he served as vice president of engineering at Google.

Wayne Rosing, Founder & Director

Mike Skrutskie, Director

Mike Skrutskie is a professor and chair of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Virginia. His research areas include infrared astronomy, sky surveys, and galactic structure. At UVA, he directs a laboratory for the construction and application of instruments operating at near-infrared (1-5um) wavelengths. The laboratory has recently delivered instruments for the world's largest telescope, the Large Binocular Telescope, and for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

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Lisa Storrie-Lombardi, President & Observatory Director

Dr. Storrie-Lombardi came to LCO from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she served as Project Manager for NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope & NuSTAR since 2016 and the Head of the Astronomy and Physics Directorate Operating Missions Office since 2017. Prior to joining JPL in 2016, she spent 17 years at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech. She received her PhD in astronomy and astrophysics from the University of Cambridge in 1995. She spends as much of her free time as possible at the beach with her dogs.  

Dr. Lisa Storrie-Lombardi