Nolan Koblischke

Nolan Koblischke

AI-powered astrophysics research

nolan.koblischke@astro.utoronto.ca

Now: Research Intern at Polymathic AI - Summer 2025

PhD: Astrophysics @ Toronto - Advisor: Jo Bovy - Expected 2028

Mission: Using this new wave of AI to understand the universe.

Tools: ChatGaia - ChatADS - AstroCoder

Latest: Building AstroCoder

GravityBench
Gravity-Bench-v1: A Benchmark on Gravitational Physics Discovery for Agents

Nolan Koblischke, Hyunseok Jang, Kristen Menou, Mohamad Ali-Dib

ICML 2025

A benchmark that challenges AI agents on gravitational physics discovery tasks, evaluating scientific reasoning and observational planning capabilities within controlled, physics-based environments.

AstroCoder
AstroCoder: AI-Powered Discovery and Usage of Astronomy Software

Nolan Koblischke, Mugdha Polimera, Maja Jablonska, Sergi Blanco-Cuaresma, Hilke Reckman, Ioana Ciuca & UniverseTBD

Application - April 10, 2025

Transforming how astronomers discover code: AI-powered search across 2,270 astronomy tools. From finding the right package to generating working examples in seconds.

SpectraFM
SpectraFM: Tuning into Stellar Foundation Models

Nolan Koblischke, Jo Bovy

NeurIPS 2024 Workshop: Foundation Models for Science
📄 arXiv:2411.04750

A Transformer-based model capable of processing stellar spectra across any wavelength range.

SMC
Calibrating and standardizing the Tip of the Red Giant Branch in the Small Magellanic Cloud using small-amplitude red giants

Nolan Koblischke, Richard I. Anderson

Astrophysical Journal, 2024
📄 arXiv:2406.19375

Discovered that pulsation impacts the TRGB in the SMC as in the LMC, with older, longer period pulsators leading to a highly accurate TRGB tip measurement.

LMC
Small-amplitude Red Giants Elucidate the Nature of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch as a Standard Candle

Richard I. Anderson, Nolan Koblischke, Laurent Eyer

Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2024
📄 arXiv:2303.04790

Discovered that red giant pulsation adds a new dimension of the TRGB method, leading to an enhanced method for measuring the Universe's expansion rate.

Featured in: EPFL News, Space.com, Universe Today, Phys.org, Tech Explorist, MyScience

ChatGaia
ChatGaia: Natural Language Interface to the Gaia Space Telescope

Nolan Koblischke

OpenAI GPT Store

Making 2 billion stars queryable through conversation. Reached 68,000+ viewers and used thousands of times.

Talks

UniverseTBD & AstroCoder (10:00-)
Theory + AI Symposium, Perimeter Institute

Gravity Bench: A Benchmark on Gravitational Physics Discovery for Agents
ESO Natural Language Processing in Astronomy

Gravity Bench: A Benchmark on Gravitational Physics Discovery for Agents
NLP for Space Science Workshop, ESA/ESAC, Madrid

SpectraFM: Tuning into Stellar Foundation Models
AstroAI Workshop, Harvard-Smithsonian CfA

ChatGaia: Talk to the Gaia Archive in Natural Language
Debating the Potential of Machine Learning in Astronomical Surveys, Flatiron