Jesse Thaler

Jesse Thaler
Alma mater	Brown (Sc.B) Harvard (PhD)
Known for	Jet substructure
Scientific career
Fields	Particle physics
Institutions	Miller Fellow, UC Berkeley Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Academic advisors	Antal Jevicki (Sc.B.) Nima Arkani-Hamed (PhD)

Jesse Thaler is an American particle physicist who is a professor at the MIT Department of Physics. He was named director of the NSF Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions (IAIFI) upon its creation in August 2020.^[1][2]

Education and research

Thaler grew up in York, Maine, and attended high school at Phillips Exeter Academy, where he won the Cox Medal, an award for the top five in the graduating class.^[3] From 1998 to 2002, he pursued a physics major magna cum laude from Brown University, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a funk band.^[4][5] In 2006, Thaler earned a Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University under the supervision of Nima Arkani-Hamed.^[6] He went to Berkeley as a Miller Fellow before returning to New England to become a faculty member at the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics in 2010. He earned tenure in 2017 and was promoted to full professor in 2021.^[3]

Since 2020 Thaler is inaugural Director of one of the inaugural NSF AI research institutes, the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions, along with Deputy Director Mike Williams. IAIFI received $20 million in initial funding.^[7][8][9]

Thaler focuses on fusing "techniques from QFT and machine learning to address outstanding questions in fundamental physics."^[8] He has made major contributions towards understanding the substructure of jets, the large collections of particles that are produced when two high-energy particles collide with one another in an experiment like the LHC. Thaler applies machine learning techniques to understand and interpret the large quantities of data experimentalists collect about these cascades of particles, which in turn can both further physicists' knowledge about the Standard Model of particle physics and has the potential to shed light on new physics.^{[5][10][11][12]}

In addition to his collider physics work, Thaler also helped design a dark matter experiment, ABRACADABRA, that looks for axions and is currently in operation.^[13][14]

Teaching and Mentoring

Thaler has won multiple awards from MIT for his mentorship of students, including the Buechner Faculty Award for Undergraduate Advising (2013), the Buechner Faculty Award for Teaching (2014), and the Perkins Award for Excellence in Graduate Advising (2017), as well as the Certificate of Distinction for Excellence in Teaching from Harvard (2005). Many of his graduate students and postdocs have gone onto careers in academia, including as professors at MIT, UIUC, and the University of Michigan.^[3] His former undergraduate research advisees include three Marshall Scholars.^[15][16][17] Along with colleague Mike Williams, Thaler also created and co-chairs a new interdisciplinary PhD program in physics, statistics, and data science since 2020.^[18]

Filmography

Thaler appeared in the movie Particle Fever.^[19]

Awards

• Fellow of the American Physical Society (2022)^[20]
• Fermilab Distinguished Scholar (2020)
• Simons Fellow in Theoretical Physics (2018)^[21]
• Edgerton Faculty Achievement Award, MIT (2017)^[22]
• Sloan Research Fellowship (2013)^[23]
• Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2012)^[24]
• DOE Early Career Award (2011)^[25]
• Miller Fellowship, Berkeley (2006)^[26]
• Goldhaber Prize, Harvard (2005)
• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2002)^[27]
• Phi Beta Kappa (2001)

References

1. "National Science Foundation announces MIT-led Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions". MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. August 26, 2020. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
2. Overbye, Dennis (November 23, 2020). "Can a Computer Devise a Theory of Everything?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
3. Thaler, Jesse. "Curriculum Vitae".
4. "about [Jesse Thaler]". www.jthaler.net. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
5. "Jesse Thaler: Seeking the fundamental nature of matter". MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. November 7, 2017. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
6. "Physics Tree - Nima Arkani-Hamed". academictree.org. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
7. "People | Jesse Thaler". MIT Statistics and Data Science Center. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
8. "Jesse Thaler » MIT Physics". MIT Physics. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
9. "NSF advances artificial intelligence research with new nationwide institutes". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
10. "Harvard a partner in $20 million AI institute". Harvard Gazette. August 26, 2020. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
11. "'Social networks' could tease new particles out of collider data". Physics World. August 19, 2019. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
12. "Jesse Thaler, MIT | Institute for Data Engineering and Science (IDEaS) | Georgia Tech". ideas.gatech.edu. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
13. "Pulling the secrets of dark matter out of a hat". MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. December 2, 2020. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
14. "Team simulates a magnetar to seek dark matter particle". MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. October 7, 2016. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
15. "Five MIT students named 2019 Marshall Scholars". MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. December 3, 2018. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
16. "Four MIT students named 2017 Marshall Scholars". MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. November 28, 2016. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
17. "Two MIT seniors named 2020 Marshall Scholars". MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. December 9, 2019. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
18. "PhD in Physics, Statistics, and Data Science » MIT Physics". MIT Physics. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
19. Morse, Susan. "York man part of 'Particle Fever'". seacoastonline.com. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
20. "Fellows nominated in 2022". APS Fellows archive. American Physical Society. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
21. "2018 Simons Fellows in Mathematics and Theoretical Physics Announced". Simons Foundation. March 23, 2018. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
22. "Biobarrier explorer and dark matter theorist win MIT's prestigious junior faculty award". MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. April 20, 2016. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
23. "Past Fellows | Alfred P. Sloan Foundation". sloan.org. Archived from the original on March 14, 2018. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
24. "Thirteen Department of Energy-Funded Researchers Honored with the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers". Energy.gov. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
25. "Five from MIT receive DoE early career research grants". MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. June 10, 2011. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
26. "Miller Fellow Focus: Jesse Thaler" (PDF). Miller Institute Newsletter. Fall 2007.
27. "NSF FastLane :: GRFP". www.research.gov. Retrieved March 7, 2021.

External links

• IAIFI