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Contact Information
| Name | Rodrigo Nemmen |
| Professional Title | Computational Science Manager |
| rsnemmen@icloud.com | |
| Phone | |
| Location | Everett, Washington WA 98203 |
| Website | https://rsnemmen.github.io/ |
Professional Summary
Computational Science Manager at Helion, working at the intersection of plasma physics, simulation, and experiment in support of fusion energy. Previously 10+ years as an astrophysicist studying black holes, relativistic jets, and accretion flows, combining magnetohydrodynamics, radiative transfer, HPC, and machine learning.
Experience
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2026 - Computational Science Manager
Helion Energy
Leading the computational science team at the intersection of simulations and experiment in support of fusion energy.
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2014 - 2026 Professor of Astrophysics
University of Sao Paulo
Led teams of 5 to 10 computational and data scientists in predictive modeling and simulation projects applied to astrophysics. I oversaw our research goals, core strategies and science roadmap.
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2022 - 2024 Research Scientist & Visiting Professor
Stanford University
Research at KIPAC (Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology) in high-energy astrophysics and machine learning, working with Professor Roger Blandford.
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2010 - 2014 NASA Postdoctoral Fellow
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
- Lead developer for BCES—a Python regression package now used by hundreds of astronomers worldwide.
- Conducted feature engineering and regression analysis on satellite data, uncovering causal relationships in black hole power and radiation, which led to a new empirical law and a publication in Science.
- Employed techniques like partial correlation, multivariate regression, and bootstrapping on data from 35 galaxies, revealing significant links between galaxy properties and black hole feedback.
Education
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2005 - 2009 Porto Alegre, Brazil
Awards
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2009 NASA Postdoctoral Fellowship
NASA
Highly competitive annual award for new Ph.D. graduates to conduct cutting-edge research at NASA Centers.
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2014 Affiliated Member
Brazilian Academy of Sciences
Honor membership awarded to 0.1% of early career scientists in Brazil.
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2015 Miriani Pastoriza Prize
Brazilian Astronomical Society
This annual award honors one outstanding astronomy researcher from a Brazilian institution, representing less than 1% of early-to-mid career astronomers.
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2024 EB-1A Green Card ("Extraordinary Ability")
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Awarded to the top 1–3% of employment-based visa applicants; no employer sponsorship required.
Publications
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2022 Deep learning Bayesian inference for low-luminosity active galactic nuclei spectra
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
This paper introduces a deep learning method to rapidly interpolate spectral calculations for black holes, enabling efficient Bayesian inference of many parameters.
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2022 Black hole weather forecasting with deep learning: a pilot study
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
AI-Driven Forecasting Algorithms using convolutional neural networks to accelerate simulations, showcasing techniques that can be tailored to hard-to-predict systems.
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2024 Emergence of hot corona and truncated disc in simulations of accreting stellar mass black holes
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
This paper showcases simulations of complex chaotic systems and analysing the resulting data to obtain insight.
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2020 Gamma-ray observations of low-luminosity active galactic nuclei
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Here I use regression techniques for censored, sparsely sampled astronomical data.
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2020 On the relation between mini-halos and AGN feedback in clusters of galaxies
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Example of using bootstrapping to robustly quantify prediction uncertainty.