Rosa Diaz

I am an astrophysicist, a mother, and the founder, President, and CEO of Bridges-Strong. For more than twenty-six years I have worked at the Space Telescope Science Institute, where I now serve as Consulting Staff Scientist for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The two roles belong together for me. At the Institute I help build the systems that turn telescope data into science. At Bridges-Strong I try to make science and engineering tools that anyone can use to improve their own life and their community.

Education and early research

I earned my B.S. in Mathematics at the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara. Under the Mexican system, that degree is comparable to an M.S. in pure mathematics in the United States. Looking ahead to astrophysics, I wrote my thesis on the application of Fourier transforms to astronomy, under the supervision of Dr. Luis Felipe Rodríguez at UNAM.

From 1990 to 1993 I was a research assistant at UNAM, studying how adaptive-optics techniques could improve astronomical observations. While completing the physics courses for the doctoral program, I received my Ph.D. in Astrophysics from UNAM in 1998. My dissertation, with Dr. José Franco López at UNAM and Dr. Steven N. Shore, examined photoionized and photodissociated regions around main-sequence stars. From September 1996 to June 1997 I was a visiting research scientist at Indiana University in South Bend, where I evaluated a hydrodynamics code in Fortran and adapted a one-dimensional version to model how those regions evolve. The work showed how important B-type stars are in producing the photodissociated and ionized gas seen in star-forming regions, and it offered simple estimates for the size of those regions in different cloud environments. It was published in The Astrophysical Journal in 1998.

Space Telescope Science Institute

I joined STScI in May 1999 and have worked there since, first as a Mission Systems Scientist and, from August 2016 to September 2025, as Deputy of the Mission Systems and Science Analysis Branch.

In the Instruments Division I coordinated cross-mission and cross-instrument projects, aligning plans and people in a science-driven environment. I worked with scientists, engineers, and developers to define and improve STScI ground systems, to resolve anomalies, and to keep technical and scientific teams clear about priorities and progress.

On Hubble, I worked with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph and Cosmic Origins Spectrograph teams. I led development of COS and STIS pipeline software, monitored STIS performance, and built tools for detector calibration and data analysis. I founded and led the Calibration Reference Data System team, which sets the quality standards for the reference files used across the instruments. I also led the Hubble Exposure Time Calculators and the synthetic photometry package, including PySynphot, and kept those tools aligned with operations. Early modeling work included galactic-disk mass distributions and photodissociated regions, both in C.

On Webb, I directed the Pipeline Block and Calibration teams, coordinated system requirements across missions, and led science-operations work for the planning and calibration systems. I supported calibration summits and coordinated Hubble–Webb cross-calibration for commissioning. With colleagues, I contributed to photometric and astrometric calibration plans for the Webb instruments and to revisions of the Science Operations Design Reference Mission.

Roman

Since September 2024 I have served as Consulting Staff Scientist for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, working remotely from the Washington–Baltimore area. Roman launched on August 30, 2026, and my work is now on the systems that will carry its data into science use.

As Deputy for the Roman Pipeline and Archive Block, I am Product Owner for the science aspects of the Data Archive and its user interface, and I coordinate that development across divisions. I lead requirements-validation testing for the Roman pipeline so that Wide Field Instrument imaging calibration is scientifically accurate, I contribute to the Roman User Support documentation for the pipeline, and I coordinate and track the group’s work.

I also lead maintenance and enhancement of the Roman notebooks for the Roman Research Nexus, on Nexus and JupyterHub. That includes reviewing issues and pull requests, contributing notebooks, supporting the scientific community through the help desk, coordinating notebook creation and documentation with the Roman Technical Team, conducting technical reviews, collaborating with groups such as MAST, and managing repository releases.

For the Roman Data Monitoring Tool, I am Product Owner for the dashboard and a notebook contributor, so that calibration data quality can be checked quickly once Roman is on orbit. Drawing on Hubble and Webb, I also recommend systems-engineering practices that improve resource management, work tracking, and collaboration between technical and scientific teams.