Beth Willman Named Interim Director of NSF NOIRLab 

The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) welcomes Dr. Beth Willman as the Interim Director of NSF NOIRLab. Dr. Willman will take over from Dr. Pat McCarthy on 5 October 2026 while AURA begins the search for a new permanent Director.

Since 2019, Dr. Pat McCarthy has successfully taken NSF NOIRLab from an idea to reality and brought together staff that now work for one organization towards common goals. Now, as NOIRLab reaches its seventh anniversary, Pat McCarthy has decided to move out of the Director role and will continue to work at NOIRLab as a Senior Scientist.

Matt Mountain, AURA President, stated, “AURA is extremely thankful to Pat McCarthy for his service to NOIRLab and to the U.S. astronomical community. Because of Dr. McCarthy’s commitment, professionalism, and hard work, NOIRLab is now well positioned to enable the astronomical community and usher in a new era of transformative astronomical discovery.” 

AURA will now begin the search for a new permanent Director to lead NOIRLab through the next phase. The AURA Board asked our former NOIRLab Deputy Director, Dr. Beth Willman, to assume the role of Interim Director and was pleased she accepted this responsibility.

Dr. Beth Willman is a leader in the science and management of ground-based astronomy facilities. Most recently she was the CEO of the LSST Discovery Alliance. Previously, she was a member of AURA leadership as NOIRLab Deputy Director and served as the first Project Director for the US Extremely Large Telescope Program, as well as the Deputy Director of the Rubin Observatory construction project. Dr. Willman earned a BS in Astrophysics from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Washington and has held prize fellowships at the NYU Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics and the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard-Smithsonian. 

Her primary scientific focus has been near-field cosmology, the detailed study of the nearby universe to answer questions such as “How has the universe formed and evolved?” and “What is the nature of dark matter?” Dr. Willman led the research team that discovered the first ultra-faint dwarf galaxies (Willman 1 and Ursa Major I), now known to be the most numerous type of galaxy in the Universe.

“I am excited to return to NOIRLab, an organization with unique strengths and capabilities,” commented Dr. Willman. “As Interim Director I look forward to building on the existing base of scientific, technical, and broad operational excellence.”

NSF NOIRLab is the preeminent U.S. national center for ground-based, nighttime optical and infrared astronomy. The mission of NOIRLab is to enable breakthrough discoveries in astrophysics by developing and operating state-of-the-art ground-based observatories and providing data products and services for the astronomical community. AURA operates NSF National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF).