Joshua Bloom

Last updated

Joshua Bloom
Born
Joshua Simon Bloom

(1974-06-08) June 8, 1974 (age 50)
Washington, D.C., USA
Alma mater Harvard College, A.B..
Cambridge University, M.Phil
California Institute of Technology, PhD
Known for Gamma-Ray Bursts, Artificial Intelligence
Awards Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Data-driven Discovery Fellow
Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy
Sloan Research Fellow
Harvard Society of Fellows
Hertz Foundation Fellow
Scientific career
FieldsAstrophysics, Computer Science
Institutions University of California, Berkeley

Joshua Simon Bloom (born June 8, 1974 in Washington, D.C.) is an American astrophysicist and professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, and was the CTO and co-founder of the machine-learning company wise.io (acquired [1] by General Electric, 2016). He received a Bachelor of Arts in astronomy and astrophysics and physics from the Harvard College in 1996, an M.Phil from Cambridge University in 1997, and a PhD in astronomy from the California Institute of Technology in 2002. He was a Junior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows from 2002 to 2005. He was the chair of the Astronomy Department at UC Berkeley from 2020 to 2023. His astronomy research focuses on gamma-ray bursts [2] and other astrophysical transients such as supernovae and tidal disruption events. He is author of the book What Are Gamma-Ray Bursts? [3] published by Princeton University Press in 2011.

Contents

Research

In 2009, ScienceWatch wrote that Bloom's gamma-ray bursts "work ranks at No. 10 by total cites, based on 85 papers cited a total of 3,639 times. Five of these papers are on the lists of the 20 most-cited papers over the past decade and over the past two years." [4] He has published over 300 refereed articles [5] and was principal investigator of the Peters Automated Infrared Telescope (PAIRITEL) [6] at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in Arizona. He is also principal investigator of the Synoptic Infrared Survey Telescope (SASIR). [7] Project and was co-chair of the transients and variable star group of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). Some of Bloom's current work focuses on the classification of astrophysical transients using machine-learning techniques. [8] [9] He suggested [10] that GRB 110328A was due to a new class of relativistic outflow events from tidal disruption of a star by a massive black hole.

Honors and awards

Bloom was awarded the Herchel Smith Harvard Scholarship to Cambridge University in 1996, and was a Hertz Foundation Fellow at the California Institute of Technology. In 2006, Bloom was named as a Sloan Research Fellow by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. In 2008, he was included as one of Astronomy magazine's ten "rising stars. [11] In 2009, he was awarded the Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy from the American Astronomical Society. In 2010, he was named as the Sophie and Tycho Brahe Visiting Professor at Copenhagen University. [12] He was awarded the Faculty Research Award [13] from Two Sigma in 2019. He is the Co-Creator of the VOEvent messaging scheme for astronomical transients.

Teaching

Bloom teaches astronomy to graduate and undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to astronomy-centric courses, he teaches the "Python Computing for Data Science" graduate course, [14] aimed at PhD students in data-rich fields. Some of his lectures are available to the public as podcasts [15] and video streams (Python class). [16]

Tennis

Bloom held an International Tennis Federation worldwide 45+ Masters Tour Singles Ranking of 556 in 2023, [17] in July 2023 was ranked 54 in the United States Tennis Association Men's 45 National Standings List for Singles, [18] and in August 2024 was ranked 26 in the United States Tennis Association Men's 40+ 4.5 National Standings List for Singles. [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gamma-ray burst</span> Flashes of gamma rays from distant galaxies

In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are immensely energetic explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies, being the brightest and most extreme explosive events in the entire universe, as NASA describes the bursts as the "most powerful class of explosions in the universe". They are the most energetic and luminous electromagnetic events since the Big Bang. Gamma-ray bursts can last from ten milliseconds to several hours. After the initial flash of gamma rays, an "afterglow" is emitted, which is longer lived and usually emitted at longer wavelengths.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope</span> Space telescope for gamma-ray astronomy launched in 2008

The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, formerly called the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), is a space observatory being used to perform gamma-ray astronomy observations from low Earth orbit. Its main instrument is the Large Area Telescope (LAT), with which astronomers mostly intend to perform an all-sky survey studying astrophysical and cosmological phenomena such as active galactic nuclei, pulsars, other high-energy sources and dark matter. Another instrument aboard Fermi, the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor, is being used to study gamma-ray bursts and solar flares.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Compton Gamma Ray Observatory</span> NASA space observatory designed to detect X-rays and gamma rays (1991–2000)

The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) was a space observatory detecting photons with energies from 20 keV to 30 GeV, in Earth orbit from 1991 to 2000. The observatory featured four main telescopes in one spacecraft, covering X-rays and gamma rays, including various specialized sub-instruments and detectors. Following 14 years of effort, the observatory was launched from Space Shuttle Atlantis during STS-37 on April 5, 1991, and operated until its deorbit on June 4, 2000. It was deployed in low Earth orbit at 450 km (280 mi) to avoid the Van Allen radiation belt. It was the heaviest astrophysical payload ever flown at that time at 16,300 kilograms (35,900 lb).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory</span> NASA satellite of the Explorer program

Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, previously called the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer, is a NASA three-telescope space observatory for studying gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and monitoring the afterglow in X-ray, and UV/Visible light at the location of a burst. It was launched on 20 November 2004, aboard a Delta II launch vehicle. Headed by principal investigator Neil Gehrels until his death in February 2017, the mission was developed in a joint partnership between Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and an international consortium from the United States, United Kingdom, and Italy. The mission is operated by Pennsylvania State University as part of NASA's Medium Explorer program (MIDEX).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GRB 970228</span> Gamma-ray burst detected on 28 Feb 1997, the first for which an afterglow was observed

GRB 970228 was the first gamma-ray burst (GRB) for which an afterglow was observed. It was detected on 28 February 1997 at 02:58 UTC. Since 1993, physicists had predicted GRBs to be followed by a lower-energy afterglow, but until this event, GRBs had only been observed in highly luminous bursts of high-energy gamma rays ; this resulted in large positional uncertainties which left their nature very unclear.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neil Gehrels</span> American astrophysicist

Cornelis A. "Neil" Gehrels was an American astrophysicist specializing in the field of gamma-ray astronomy. He was Chief of the Astroparticle Physics Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) from 1995 until his death, and was best known for his work developing the field from early balloon instruments to today's space observatories such as the NASA Swift mission, for which he was the principal investigator. He was leading the WFIRST wide-field infrared telescope forward toward a launch in the mid-2020s. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HETE 2</span> NASA satellite of the Explorer program

High Energy Transient Explorer 2 was a NASA astronomical satellite with international participation. The satellite bus for the first HETE-1 was designed and built by AeroAstro, Inc. of Herndon, Virginia and was lost during launch on 4 November 1996; the replacement satellite, HETE-2 was built by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) based on the original HETE design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GRB 080319B</span> Gamma-ray burst in the constellation Boötes

GRB 080319B was a gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected by the Swift satellite at 06:12 UTC on March 19, 2008. The burst set a new record for the farthest object that was observable with the naked eye: it had a peak visual apparent magnitude of 5.7 and remained visible to human eyes for approximately 30 seconds. The magnitude was brighter than 9.0 for approximately 60 seconds. If viewed from 1 AU away, it would have had a peak apparent magnitude of −67.57. It had an absolute magnitude of −38.6, beaten by GRB 220101A with −39.4 in 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian Centre for Space Physics</span>

The Indian Centre for Space Physics (ICSP) is an Indian non-profit research organisation dedicated to carrying out advanced research in astronomy, astrophysics and space science. It is a sister institute of the University of Calcutta and the University of Gour Banga. It is located in the southern part of the city of Kolkata. It is located to its new Integrated campus on the Eastern metropolitan bypass 70 meters from Jyotirindra Nandy Metro station behind Metro Cash and Carry. Its Ionospheric and Earthquake Research Centre and optical observatory (IERCOO) where a 24-inch optical telescope (Vashista) has been installed is located at Sitapur, West Medinipur, where Astrotourism facility is opened. School and college students regularly carry out sky watching using its 10-inch telescope (Arundhati). The ground floor of the Integrated Campus has Museum of Astronomy and Space Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GRB 970508</span> Gamma-ray burst detected on May 8, 1997

GRB 970508 was a gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected on May 8, 1997, at 21:42 UTC; it is historically important as the second GRB with a detected afterglow at other wavelengths, the first to have a direct redshift measurement of the afterglow, and the first to be detected at radio wavelengths.

The history of gamma-ray began with the serendipitous detection of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) on July 2, 1967, by the U.S. Vela satellites. After these satellites detected fifteen other GRBs, Ray Klebesadel of the Los Alamos National Laboratory published the first paper on the subject, Observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts of Cosmic Origin. As more and more research was done on these mysterious events, hundreds of models were developed in an attempt to explain their origins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GRB 090423</span> Gamma-ray burst detected in 2009

GRB 090423 was a gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected by the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission on April 23, 2009, at 07:55:19 UTC whose afterglow was detected in the infrared and enabled astronomers to determine that its redshift is z = 8.2, making it one of the most distant objects detected at that time with a spectroscopic redshift.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GRB 990123</span>

GRB 990123 is a gamma-ray burst which was detected on January 23, 1999. It was the first GRB for which a simultaneous optical flash was detected. Astronomers first managed to obtain a visible-light image of a GRB as it occurred on January 23, 1999, using the ROTSE-I telescope in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The ROTSE-I was operated by a team under Dr. Carl W. Akerlof of the University of Michigan and included members from Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The robotic telescope was fully automated, responding to signals from NASA's BATSE instrument aboard the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory within seconds, without human intervention. In the dark hours of the morning of January 23, 1999, the Compton satellite recorded a gamma-ray burst that lasted for about a minute and a half. There was a peak of gamma and X-ray emission 25 seconds after the event was first detected, followed by a somewhat smaller peak 40 seconds after the beginning of the event. The emission then fizzled out in a series of small peaks over the next 50 seconds, and eight minutes after the event had faded to a hundredth of its maximum brightness. The burst was so strong that it ranked in the top 2% of all bursts detected.

David Louis Band or David L. Band was an astronomer who studied the theory of gamma-ray bursts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swift J1644+57</span> Tidal disruption event in the constellation Draco

Swift J164449.3+573451, initially referred to as GRB 110328A, and sometimes abbreviated to Sw J1644+57, was a tidal disruption event (TDE), the destruction of a star by a supermassive black hole. It was first detected by the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission on March 28, 2011. The event occurred in the center of a small galaxy in the Draco constellation, about 3.8 billion light-years away. It was the first confirmed jetted tidal disruption event and is the most luminous and energetic TDE recorded.

The Livermore Optical Transient Imaging System, or LOTIS, is an automated telescope designed to slew very rapidly to the location of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), to enable the simultaneous measurement of optical counterparts. Since GRBs can occur anywhere in the sky, are often poorly localized, and fade very quickly, this implies very rapid slewing and a wide field of view. To achieve the needed response time, LOTIS was fully automated and connected via Internet socket to the Gamma-ray Burst Coordinates Network. This network analyzes telemetry from satellite such as HETE-2 and Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission and delivers GRB coordinate information in real-time. The optics were built from 4 commercial tele-photo lenses of 11 cm aperture, with custom 2048 X 2048 CCD cameras, and could view a 17.6 X 17.6 degree field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Time-domain astronomy</span> Study of how astronomical objects change with time

Time-domain astronomy is the study of how astronomical objects change with time. Though the study may be said to begin with Galileo's Letters on Sunspots, the term now refers especially to variable objects beyond the Solar System. Changes over time may be due to movements or changes in the object itself. Common targets included are supernovae, pulsating stars, novas, flare stars, blazars and active galactic nuclei. Visible light time domain studies include OGLE, HAT-South, PanSTARRS, SkyMapper, ASAS, WASP, CRTS, GOTO and in a near future the LSST at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kilonova</span> Neutron star merger

A kilonova is a transient astronomical event that occurs in a compact binary system when two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole merge. These mergers are thought to produce gamma-ray bursts and emit bright electromagnetic radiation, called "kilonovae", due to the radioactive decay of heavy r-process nuclei that are produced and ejected fairly isotropically during the merger process. The measured high sphericity of the kilonova AT2017gfo at early epochs was deduced from the blackbody nature of its spectrum.

Transient High-Energy Sky and Early Universe Surveyor (THESEUS) is a space telescope mission proposal by the European Space Agency that would study gamma-ray bursts and X-rays for investigating the early universe. If developed, the mission would investigate star formation rates and metallicity evolution, as well as studying the sources and physics of reionization.

Bing Zhang is a Chinese astrophysicist and professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is best known for his research in gamma-ray bursts, fast radio bursts, and other high-energy astrophysical phenomena. He is the author of the book The Physics of Gamma-Ray Bursts.

References

  1. ↑ Frederic, Lardinois (November 2016). "GE acquires Wise.io to deepen its machine learning stack". Techcrunch.
  2. ↑ Wong, Kathleen (February 2008). "Tracking Space Transients". ScienceMatters@Berkeley. Berkeley, California. Archived from the original on July 19, 2011.
  3. ↑ Bloom, Joshua (2011). What Are Gamma-Ray Bursts?. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN   978-0-691-14557-0.
  4. ↑ "Gamma-ray Bursts, Special Topics Interview". Thomson Reuters ScienceWatch. August 2009. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
  5. ↑ "Refereed articles of Joshua Bloom" . Retrieved January 4, 2011.
  6. ↑ "PAIRITEL, Robotic Telescope for the 21st century". Archived from the original on January 5, 2011. Retrieved January 4, 2011.
  7. ↑ "SASIR". Archived from the original on February 7, 2011. Retrieved January 4, 2011.
  8. ↑ "NSF Supports UC Berkeley in Taming the Data Deluge in Astronomy" . Retrieved January 4, 2011.
  9. ↑ Mike, Wall (October 11, 2010). "Astronomy Overload: Scientists Shifting From Stargazing to Data Mining". Space.com.
  10. ↑ Joshua S. Bloom; et al. (March 30, 2011). "GRB 110328A / Swift J164449.3+573451: X-ray analysis and a mini-blazar analogy". GCN Circulars 11847 (30 March 2011).
  11. ↑ "National magazines tout two chemists and two astronomers as top innovators in their fields" Archived June 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine , University of California Newsroom, Berkeley, CA, August 22, 2008.
  12. ↑ "Sophie and Tycho Brahe Programme". Archived from the original on January 6, 2013. Retrieved January 4, 2011.
  13. ↑ "Two Sigma: Awards or Consultants" . Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  14. ↑ "Python Computing for Data Science". GitHub . Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  15. ↑ "Astro 10P Introduction to General Astronomy" . Retrieved January 4, 2011.
  16. ↑ "AY250: Python computing for physical science". Archived from the original on March 16, 2016. Retrieved February 21, 2012.
  17. ↑ "Joshua Bloom Masters Tour Singles Overview" . Retrieved August 27, 2023.
  18. 1 2 "Joshua Bloom: Standing List Rankings" . Retrieved August 27, 2023.
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