Over eight years of observations, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has contributed to many fields of astronomy, from the identification of distinct families of asteroids in our own solar system to the discovery of the most distant luminous quasars, mapping both the surprisingly complex distribution of stars in our own Milky Way and the distribution of galaxies that trace the largest scale structures in the Universe. This broad-ranging symposium will review progress and prospects, integrating observational contributions from the SDSS and from other major surveys with theoretical interpretation of the results, and to discuss plans for the next generation of large astronomical survey projects. The organizers plan on 200 participants, about half of them from the SDSS Collaboration (which itself has some 300 scientific participants) and half from elsewhere. The seven main science sessions will be: The Solar System, Stars, The Milky Way and Its Neighbors, Galaxies, Quasars, Large-Scale Structure and Galaxy Clusters, and Supernova Cosmology. Sessions will include invited reviews, contributed talks, and poster presentations.
The major goal of the conference is to review results from the 15-year effort on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and present these to the broader community. Funds from this grant will support reduced registration fees and travel expenses for student participants.
