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Joshua Bloom

Professor of Astronomy

UC Berkeley

Welcome

Josh a Professor of Astronomy and Miller Professor at the University of California, Berkeley teaching radiative processes, high-energy astrophysics, astronomy data lab, and a graduate-level “Python for Data Science” course. He has published over 300 refereed articles largely on time-domain transients events, artificial intelligence, and telescope/insight automation. His book on gamma-ray bursts, a technical introduction for physical scientists, was published by Princeton University Press. He is the former chair of the Astronomy Department. Josh has been awarded the Data-Driven Discovery prize from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Pierce Prize from the American Astronomical Society; he is also a former Sloan Fellow, Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society, and Hertz Foundation Fellow. He was co-founder and CTO of Wise.io, an AI application startup, acquired by GE in 2016.

Much of Josh's current group activities can be found at ML4Science.

Josh is the founder and principal curator of the CuratingAI art exhibition which ran in April 2024.

Note on Speaking Invitations: In the interest of fostering diverse representation, before inviting me to speak at a conference or the like, 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.

Interests

  • Machine learning meets Physics
  • Time domain (Black hole transients, Gamma-ray bursts)
  • Optical/infrared instrumentation

Education

  • PhD in Astrophysics, 2002

    Caltech

  • MPhil in Astronomy, 1997

    Cambridge University

  • AB in Astrophysics and Astronomy and Physics, 1996

    Harvard College

Recent Publications

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Collapsars as Sites of r-process Nucleosynthesis: Systematic Photometric Near-infrared Follow-up of Type Ic-BL Supernovae

One of the open questions following the discovery of GW170817 is whether neutron star (NS) mergers are the only astrophysical sites …

SN 2022oqm–A Ca-rich Explosion of a Compact Progenitor Embedded in C/O Circumstellar Material

We present the discovery and analysis of SN 2022oqm, a Type Ic supernova (SN) detected <1 day after the explosion. The SN rises to a …

Characterizing the Ordinary Broad-line Type Ic SN 2023pel from the Energetic GRB 230812B

We report observations of the optical counterpart of the long gamma-ray burst (GRB) GRB 230812B and its associated supernova (SN) SN …

Keck Infrared Transient Survey. I. Survey Description and Data Release 1

We present the Keck Infrared Transient Survey, a NASA Key Strategic Mission Support program to obtain near-infrared (NIR) spectra of …

Machine-learning enhanced photometric analysis of the extremely bright GRB 210822A

We present analytical and numerical models of the bright long GRB 210822A at z = 1.736. The intrinsic extreme brightness exhibited in …

Recent Posts

CuratingAI: Exploring AI in traditional art mediums

We just wrapped an extraordinary two weeks here in Berkeley exhibiting art that makes use of AI in novel ways. I was the co-founder and …

Just the Beginning for AI & Science

Something very exciting is happening right now across the landscape of the physical and mathematical sciences: we are finally starting …

Making a Mask with an E-Ink Banner

We wear masks out in public so often it occurred to me we should be able to dynamically customize them to suit our moods and maybe even …

Dynamic Programming with Python dataclasses and joblib

Starting in Python 3.7, the module dataclasses introduces a decorator that allows us to create immutable structures (like tuples) but …

Serverless Distributed Decision Forests with AWS Lambda

Within the Wise.io team in GE Digital, we have monthly "edu-hackdays" where the entire tech team spends the entire day trying to learn …

Projects

Presentations

Contact

  • 501 Campbell Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720
  • Enter Campbell and go to the second flow
  • DM Me