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Spring 2019

    - Astronomy Data Laboratory (AY 128/256) more info...

A bit about me

I'm an astronomy professor at the University of California, Berkeley where I teach high-energy astrophysics, Python bootcamps, and a graduate-level class on Python for data-driven science. I have published over 270 refereed articles largely on time-domain transients events, machine learning, and telescope/insight automation. Expressed in my research is output of a collaborative effort between talented astronomers, statisticians and computer scientists (ranging from students to peers) at the nexus of physics, scalable computation, and machine learning.  My book on gamma-ray bursts was published in 2011 as part of the "Frontiers in Physics" Series by Princeton University Press.  I have been awarded the Pierce Prize from the American Astronomical Society and I am a former Sloan Fellow, Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society, and Hertz Foundation Fellow. I hold a PhD from Caltech and degrees from Harvard and Cambridge University. Recently, I've been working as co-PI of the Moore-Sloan Data Science Initiative at UC Berkeley and elected member of the management oversight body of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). If you're interested in the work I'm doing at wise.io, head over there to learn more.

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Note About Invitations to Speak at Conferences

In the interest of fostering diverse representation, before inviting me to speak at a conferences, I ask that organizers pay particular attention to attracting women and those from underrepresented groups to be on the panel(s)/speaker list. I've served on too many academic and industry panels where the representation of such groups was nil or close to zero. If logistics work out, I'd be happy to participate so long as there are some assurances that it will be a diverse group on stage.

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