The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is an on-going 5-year optical survey of the sky being carried out with a dedicated 2.5m telescope at Apache Point Observatory in southern New Mexico. The Survey is operated by an international consortium of institutions, including the University of Chicago. Covering roughly 1/4 of the Northern sky, the SDSS will comprise a photometric (CCD) imaging survey of 100 million objects in 5 wavebands, a magnitude-limited spectroscopic (redshift) survey of about 900,000 galaxies and 100,000 quasars, and a nearly volume-limited redshift survey of 100,000 luminous red galaxies. The southern SDSS will include repeated imaging of a 225 square degree region, enabling a deeper co-added survey as well as study of transient phenomena.

This mini-symposium will highlight some of the early science results from the SDSS, with particular emphasis on the large-scale structure of the Universe.