Curriculum Vitae Ingo Peter Waldmann
ORCID: 0000-0002-4205-5267 Date of birth: 18th July 1986 URL: ingowaldmann.com Nationality: German
RESEARCH FOCUS My expertise is in machine learning, Bayesian modelling and information theory applied to exoplanetary atmospheric measurements. In particular, I have pioneered techniques for the data analysis of very low signal observations and the de-correlation of non-linear, correlated systems. These include the use of supervised and unsupervised machine learning, deep neural networks for pattern recognition, non-linear component separation and information geometry to map high-dimensional probability spaces. My work finds application both in the data analysis of weak signals and the modelling of complex atmospheres of extrasolar planets and solar system objects.
CURRENT POSITIONS 2020 – present Associate Professor in Astrophysics & PI of ExoAI group at University College London Outline: PI of the ERC funded ExoAI group dedicated to developing next generation deep learning solutions in data analysis and atmospheric inverse retrieval modelling of exoplanets and solar system planets. I am also the machine learning lead on the ESA Ariel mission as well as the atmospheric retrieval lead of the European Union H2020 project ExoplANETS A. I am the UCL Mathematical and Physical Science faculty representative for Artificial Intelligence Funding body: European Research Council (ExoAI), European Union H2020, UKSA, STFC
2019 – present Deputy Director of the UCL Centre for Space and Exochemistry Data (CSED). Outline: I lead CSED’s industry engagements and artificial intelligence research. I also coordinate the Ariel space mission high performance computing (HPC) and exascale computing project through the UK DiRAC HPC facility.
2018 – present Director of the MSc Planetary Science degree programme.
PREVIOUS POSITIONS 2018 – 2020 Lecturer in Extrasolar Planets at UCL Funding body: European Research Council (ExoAI, ExoLights), STFC
2014 - 2018 Senior Research Associate at UCL Funding body: UK Space Agency, European Research Council (ExoLights/ExoMol)
2012 – 2014 Research Associate at UCL Funding body: UK Space Agency
FELLOWSHIPS & AWARDS - Royal Astronomical Society Fowler Award for ‘particularly noteworthy contributions to the fields of Astronomy & Geophysics at an early career stage’ (2019) - European Research Council Starting Grant (PI: I. Waldmann, start 2018) - Microsoft Azure Research Sponsorship 2017/2018 - NASA Postdoctoral Fellowship (2014) - Jon Darius Memorial Prize for Outstanding Postgraduate Research: best PhD thesis in Physics. - Brian Duff Memorial Prize for best Masters Thesis in Physics - STFC Postgraduate Studentship - Natural Science Award for best final year performance EDUCATION 2009 - 2012 PhD in Astrophysics Dept. Physics & Astronomy, University College London, UK Advisors: Prof. Tinetti, Dr. Fossey My thesis entitled “Of ‘Cocktail Parties’ and Exoplanets” pioneered the data analysis of exoplanetary time series and spectra using unsupervised machine learning algorithms. I finished my PhD within 2.5 years (1.5 years ahead of schedule) Awards: The ‘Jon Darius Memorial Prize’ for best annual PhD thesis of the Faculty.
2005 - 2009 M.Sci. & B.Sci in Astrophysics & Planetary Sciences, Mathematical & Physical Science Faculty, Dept. of Natural Science, University College London, UK Degree awarded: First Class Honours Awards: 1) Brian Duff Memorial Prize for best Master thesis in Physics. 2) Natural Science Award for best final year performance in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences.
PUBLICATIONS - 87 published papers in high-impact journals - h-index: 24, i10-index: 45, total citations: 2370 - Publication on the potentially habitable exoplanet K2-18b led by my post-doc was the most read paper of all physical science publications in 2019 (Altmetric score: 3382); Tsiaras, Waldmann et al. 2019, Nature Astronomy.
Five most significant publications: - Tsiaras, A., Waldmann, I.P., Tinetti, G., Tennyson, J., Yurchenko, S.N. (2019). Water vapour in the atmosphere of the habitable-zone eight-Earth-mass planet K2-18 b (Nature Astronomy, (2019), 10.1038/s41550-019-0878-9). Nature Astronomy, doi:10.1038/s41550-019-0924-7 - Waldmann, I., Griffith, C. (2019). Mapping Saturn using deep learning. Nature Astronomy, doi:10.1038/s41550-019-0753-8 - Waldmann, I.P. (2016). Dreaming Of Atmospheres. Astrophysical Journal, 820 (2), doi:10.3847/0004-637X/820/2/107 - Waldmann, I.P. (2012). Of "Cocktail Parties" And Exoplanets. Astrophysical Journal, 747 (1), doi:10.1088/0004-637X/747/1/12 - Waldmann, I.P., Tinetti, G., Rocchetto, M., Barton, E.J., Yurchenko, S.N., Tennyson, J. (2015). Tau-REx I: A next generation retrieval code for exoplanetary atmospheres. Astrophysical Journal, 802 (2), doi:10.1088/0004-637X/802/2/107
MEDIA AND OUTREACH I provide regular advice to national and international media organisations (e.g. the BBC, ITV, the Times) on the topics of extrasolar planets and machine learning in planetary sciences. Together with the UCL Exoplanets group and the UCL Communications & Marketing team, we have published several large press releases in recent years:
2019: “Detection of water on a habitable super-Earth” (https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2019/sep/first-water-detected-potentially-habitable-planet). UCL – ESA/NASA – EU press release. Reach: 4500+ articles in 70+ countries. UCL’s largest ever press release.
2016: “Detection of an Atmosphere Around the Super-Earth 55 Cancri e”, European Space Agency - UCL press release: Reach: 200+ news articles in 12+ languages.
2016: “Dreaming of Atmospheres”, Royal Astronomical Society - UCL 2016 press release. Reach: 50+ news articles in 4+ languages. TALKS & SEMINARS - 70+ talks at international conferences, lectures and seminars (30 invited) from 2010 - present
Selected Invited Talks and Seminars - ETH Zurich Astrophysics Colloquium (Zurich, Switzerland) - 2021 - Royal Astronomical Society Fowler Prize talk (London, UK) - 2019 - Cambridge University Astrophysics Seminar (Cambridge, UK) – 2019 - NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory Seminar (Pasadena, USA) - 2018 - Re-Works conference on machine learning (Amsterdam, Netherlands) – 2017 - Harvard CfA Seminar (Boston, USA) - 2016 - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux Seminar (Bordeaux, France) - 2016 - Centre Energie Atomique (CEA) seminar (Paris, France) - 2016 - NASA/Goddard Space Center seminar (Washington, USA) – 2015
SUPERVISION OF GRADUATE AND POST-GRADUATE STUDENTS 2020 – present: David Smith (PhD, European Space Agency & UCL) 2019 – present: Maxton Hipperson (PhD, Dept. Physics & Astronomy, UCL) 2018 – present: Mario Morvan (PhD, Dept. Physics & Astronomy, UCL) 2017 – present: George Cann (PhD, Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UCL) 2017 – present: Kay Hou Yip (PhD, Dept. Physics & Astronomy, UCL) 2017 – present: Omar Jahangir (PhD, Dept. Physics & Astronomy, UCL) 2012 – 2016 : Marco Rocchetto (PhD, Dept. Physics & Astronomy, UCL) 2014 – 2017: Angelos Tsiaras (PhD, Dept. Physics & Astronomy, UCL) 2016 – 2019: Tiziano Tsiaras &Mario Damiano (PhD, Dept. Physics & Astronomy, UCL) 2013 – 2016: Giuseppe Morello (co-supervised PhD, Dept. Physics & Astronomy, UCL) 2012 – 2015: Ryan Varley co-supervised PhD, Dept. Physics & Astronomy, UCL) 2012 – present: Supervised 7 Masters project (2 of which are current)
TEACHING ACTIVITIES UCL: 2019 – present: Centre for Doctoral Training in Data Intensive Science director of admissions 2018 – present: Director of the MSc Planetary Science graduate programme 2015 – present: Course convenor & Lecturer: Astronomy Dissertations (Cert Astr) 2012 – 2015: Course convenor & Lecturer: Exoplanets and Spectroscopy (Cert Astr)
External: 2019: Lecturer at the Ariel Summer School on Atmospheric physics, Biarritz, France 2017: Lecturer at the COST Summer School on Atmospheric physics, Belgrade, Serbia 2016: Lecturer at the Como Summer School on Exoplanets, Como, Italy 2014: Lecturer at the International ATIC school for Atmospheric Physics, Lethbridge, Canada 2011 – 2012: Lecturer at the European Research Course on Atmospheres (ERCA), Grenoble, France
ORGANISATION OF SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS 2021: Royal Astronomical Society specialised meeting on Exoplanet spectroscopy 2019: Digital Exoplanets workshop in Prague 2018: Cumberland Lodge conference on Exoplanet spectroscopy 2016: Organiser of the James Webb Space Telescope – MIRI consortium atmospheric modelling group at UCL
ENTERPRISE & EXTERNAL ENGAGEMENT Spaceflux (2019 – present): Co-founded and Director of the UCL spinoff company SpaceFlux Limited. SpaceFlux launched a global network of robotic telescopes called telescope.live (https://telescope.live) in October 2019. The network allows commercial access to optical telescopes in Australia, Chile and Spain for professional and amateur astronomers. Telescope.live is run from the UCL Observatory and will play a key part in the scientific target preparation for the ESA ARIEL space mission. Furthermore, it will provide a platform for artificial intelligence development in image recognition and processing in collaboration with UCL AI partners and the ExoAI group. From March 2020, we will start a regular internship programme for internal and external students to work on AI related aspects of astronomical data.
OceanMind (2019 - present): Knowledge Exchange project on image recognition of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing using space-based synthetic aperture radar. This project is a collaboration between UCL Innovation & Enterprise, Space Applications Catapult OceanMind Ltd, ICEYE and UCL-CSED. I am the scientific Principal Investigator and advise our industry partners on optimal observing strategies.